Highlights

Villeneuve quits drivers' body over Schumacher

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-12 10:10

SILVERSTONE, England, June 11 - Canadian Jacques Villeneuve has quit the Grand Prix Drivers' Association after their failure to oust Ferrari's Michael Schumacher as leader.

"He left because he has a point of view and is free to do whatever he wants," Toyota's Jarno Trulli, one of the three GPDA directors, confirmed at the British Grand Prix on Sunday.

"The GPDA is not there to judge a driver, it is there to assure that all drivers and teams and circuits have got enough safety," the Italian told Reuters.

Schumacher caused uproar and triggered a cheating controversy in Monaco two weeks ago when he prevented rivals from beating his pole position time by stopping on the track ahead of them in the final seconds.

The stewards ruled that he had done so deliberately and stripped him of pole, sending the seven-times champion to the back of the starting grid.

Schumacher has pleaded innocent, saying he made a simple driver error.

Villeneuve, the 1997 champion who has been a firm foe since the German tried to ram him off the track in the Canadian's title-deciding race, spoke out against Schumacher earlier in the week at Silverstone.

"Everybody makes mistakes at critical moments but then you have to be big enough to just say 'Oops, sorry guys, that was really stupid of me and it was embarrassing' and life carries on," the Canadian had said on Thursday.

"If you try and make people believe that you didn't do it on purpose then actually you just look (stupid).

"Personally I am not happy that someone can run the GPDA and act like that."

Trulli said Villeneuve was the only driver who had told him he was leaving the GPDA, who left the leadership unchanged after a meeting at the British track on Friday.