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A desperate man Schumacher's tactics show he is trying too hard
Michael Schumacher would have you believe that any number of people are pressing the destruct button in his increasingly desperate pursuit of Ferrari's first world drivers' title since 1979. But the German superstar pressing self-destruct? Simply impossible. At least that's what he'd claim. In Sunday's German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, he disappointed tens of thousands of fans by crashing out at the very first corner for the second successive race. In the Austrian Grand Prix last time out, Schumacher blamed Brazil's Ricardo Zonta. This time, he laid the blame squarely at the door of Italy's Giancarlo Fisichella, who supposedly shunted him from the back. "He's behind and should be watching out," declared Schumacher after seeing his once lordly lead in the drivers' standings reduced to a mere two points with six races left. "He (Fisichella) apologised, but that doesn't help me. The second time around, it really gets on my nerves." Fisichella saw things somewhat differently, saying: "I think we should decide in the rules whether a driver should stick to his line. I was on my line, then suddenly Michael's car was right in front of my front wheel so I went into the back of his car." Switching lines dramatically has been a Schumacher trademark of late -- a controversial one at that.
His world championship rival David Coulthard, now joint-second in the standings on 54 points alongside McLaren colleague Mika Hakkinen, has voiced his displeasure about Schumacher's antics at the start of recent Grand Prix. And perhaps that, more than anything, cost Schumacher on Sunday. The German started from second position on the grid, behind Coulthard. The Scot, apparently imitating Schumacher's start-style, swerved hard from the outside to the inside to prevent the Ferrari No.1 getting through. That forced Schumacher to swerve in the other direction. Fisichella touched him. Race over. Schumacher's now failed to score a point in four of the last five races, allowing his McLaren rivals to eat away his once chunky lead. The pressure of attempting to end Ferrari's long world drivers' championship drought is weighing heavily on the highly-paid Schumacher in this his fourth year of trying. Indeed, his title lead is only intact at all because his Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello chose the wet and treacherous German Grand Prix to finally show his F1 worth and record his first triumph. Schumacher is undeniably twitchy. Hakkinen and Coulthard are not. The German needs to straighten himself out in more ways than one - or risk another season of title torment for his wealthy, glamorous and so often unfulfilled Italian team.
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