Schumi and Burti on the crash

Michael Schumacher and Luciano Burti are both aware of how lucky they were to escape the horrifying accident at the start of the German Grand Prix on Sunday.

Michael Schumacher and Luciano Burti are both aware of how lucky they were to escape the horrifying accident at the start of the German Grand Prix on Sunday.

Schumacher had gear selection problems at the start of the race and Burti, who did not see the German as the cars stormed around him, crashed into the Ferrari at 225km/h. The Prost reared into the air and flew over the top of Enrique Bernoldi’s Arrows.

“At the first start I had a problem with the gear selection. I did not know where to go and when I saw Burti in my mirrors I couldn’t move out of the way. It was a difficult situation but it could have been a lot worse,” Schumacher said.

Both re-started, but the German again had problems and retired on lap 23, while Burti’s race ended a lap later.

Of the accident, Burti said: “It happened so fast. A few seconds after the start, Michael had a problem, but I could not see him. He slowed down in the middle of the track among all the cars in front of me.

“When I saw him it was too late to avoid the crash. I think the accident looked worse on TV than what I experienced in my car and luckily I am not badly injured. I took the second start in Jean’s (Alesi’s) spare car which, to my surprise, felt even better than mine.

“This allowed me to have a good pace. The only thing is that I had hurt my left arm somewhere in the crash, and it became very difficult to hold the steering wheel, which felt even heavier to turn. I tried to give my best but the pain was growing so much I simply could not drive any longer.”

Meanwhile, Jacques Villeneuve was surprised that stewards stopped the race after the first-corner crash. The red flag came out on the second lap.

Villeneuve said: “I was surprised to see the red flag. We had gone through the debris once so the track was clean and the most dangerous part of the race is the start and that was over so I was really, really surprised they decided to make us do it again.”

The Canadian finished in third place after he started 12th.