• Hungarian Grand Prix

Schumacher switched off engine

ESPN Staff
July 29, 2012 « Strategy cost us fifth - Webber | Lotus closing in on win - Raikkonen »
Michael Schumacher endured a frustrating afternoon before retiring with a lack of telemetry © Press Association
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Michael Schumacher revealed that he did not cause the aborted start before the Hungarian Grand Prix but switched his engine off after the yellow lights were shown.

When the grid pulled away to start a second formation lap Schumacher was left stranded on the grid and wheeled in to the pit lane, indicating that it was his car which had caused the start to be aborted. However, Schumacher revealed afterwards that an overheating engine concerned him enough to turn off his engine because the grid did not appear to be moving after the start was aborted.

"We had yellow lights, pretty high engine temperatures and I decided to switch off the engine as they were waiting so long," Schumacher said. "Obviously that meant starting from the pit lane, then I got a puncture. I don't know how or what happened to pick up a puncture because obviously there was no contact; I was alone by myself. Then having a drive through - I think maybe the pit lane limiter or something didn't work through the puncture phase - and then the race was decided.

"So it was just about trying to hang out and see if maybe something unusual would happen that we could take benefit from, but in the end because we had these engine temps and we had some telemetry issues we decided to be safe and stop the car."

Schumacher eventually retired with a telemetry problem but was philosophical after the race and said that Mercedes' previous form encouraged him that this weekend was a one-off.

"It is what it is and you have to take it as it comes. You have to learn your lesson, improve from where we are and work even harder.

"The team has been showing performance in quite a few races this year, so we are capable of [being competitive]; we just need to get our acts together again ... We have had our highlights and we have had our down moments like today, so we have had kind of everything."

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