Expect no favours, Barrichello tells Schumi

“This is no longer the Ferrari of the times of (Eddie) Irvine and I am no longer in the situation of 2002, when I had to give the victory to Schumacher in Austria,” Italy’s Gazzetta Dello Sport quoted him as saying on Friday.

“In future I will have to consider Michael not as a teammate but as a driver like any other.”

Barrichello, winner of nine races for Ferrari, has played the role of loyal number two since he arrived at Ferrari in 2000 as a replacement for Northern Irishman Eddie Irvine.

His role was highlighted at the Austrian Grand Prix of 2002, a race he dominated until the last corner when he slowed to let Schumacher win.

“Michael and I in these years have had two, three or four situations of this kind,” he said of the Monaco incident. “And I have always had to think in two ways: to think of what I should do for him and what I should do for the team.”

“If we had touched we would have both gone into the guardrail,” he said of the Monaco incident. “And those three points we managed to win would have gone up in smoke.

“In the tunnel I got a bit too close to (Toyota’s) Ralf (Schumacher) and had to ease off to avoid hitting him, and Michael took advantage.

“If Rubens had been behind him and he had dared to overtake, the world would have come down (on him),” he added, referring to himself in the third person.

Schumacher finished seventh in Monaco, with Barrichello eighth, and also drew the fire of younger brother Ralf for trying to force his way past him at the finish.

Although both brothers declared peace at the Nuerburgring, sixth-placed Ralf had said Michael could have killed him. “Sometimes I have the impression he turns his brain off,” he said.

Barrichello suggested he deserved more consideration but was now focusing on Sunday’s race, a home circuit for the Schumachers, which the Brazilian won in 2002. “Meanwhile the Nuerburgring is what matters, I am racing here in Germany with a very clear objective: to win the Grand Prix,” said Barrichello.

Schumi makes his intent clear: says, catch me if you can!

NUERBURGRING: Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher made an early declaration of intent on Friday with the quickest time by a race driver in first practice for Sunday’s European Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion delighted his home crowd at a sunbathed Nuerburgring by lapping in one minute 32.578 seconds, a time only McLaren’s Austrian test driver Alex Wurz was able to better. The German, who won from pole here last year, has struggled this season and is hoping the return to a single qualifying session this weekend will help him move up the grid to a position where he can make the most of his car’s undoubted pace. Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta was third fastest ahead of Schumacher’s Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello with Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who has won the last two races, fifth fastest for McLaren. Spain’s championship leader Fernando Alonso went out for just two laps in the first of two sessions on Friday, preserving the engine in his Renault for Saturday’s qualifying session and Sunday’s race. (Reuters)