Michael Schumacher has blamed a straightforward loss of concentration for his crash in the closing minutes of second practice in Germany.
Schumacher was changing settings in car just before crash
Michael Schumacher has admitted his crash in the closing minutes of Practice Two at Hockenheim was a result of a straightforward loss of concentration.
The seven-times World Champion dropped his W03 into the barriers at the Mobil 1 Kurve after running onto the wet kerb at the sharp right-hander, with the impact causing substantial damage to both the front and rear of the car.
Team radio relays revealed that just prior to entering the Stadium Section Schumacher, who clambered out of the accident unscathed, had been discussing set-up changes with his race engineer and, speaking in Mercedes' end-of-day press release afterwards, the veteran admitted he had been distracted.
"The way I ended the second session was obviously not part of the plan and I'm sorry that my mistake has given my guys even more work to do this evening," he said.
"I simply slid off track because I lost a little concentration: we were talking on the radio and I was altering some settings at the same time. But that's all part of the game."
Although he ended the rain-hit second session only ahead of the HRT of Pedro de la Rosa on the timesheet, the four-time German GP winner had finished the drier opening session in fourth place.
He now says that overnight he will work with his engineers to ensure his W03 is set-up in the ideal manner for expected further wet conditions in Qualifying.
"Overall, the session went ok, even though we didn't do too much running in the first session because the conditions were a bit too inconsistent," Schumacher added.
"I think that qualifying will probably be wet tomorrow, so today's weather was useful in that respect.
"Now we need to do more work on the computer to tease out the insights we weren't able to get from our track running."
It proved to be a disappointing day on both sides of the Mercedes garage with Nico Rosberg confirming he would take a five-grid slot penalty on account of an unscheduled engine change.
