Team hoping to avoid an engine changeMichael Schumacher's championship hopes were dealt another blow at Interlagos on Saturday afternoon when a technical fault left his Ferrari stranded in the pits for the decisive top-ten tussle for pole.
While his Brazilian team-mate
delighted the home crowd by dominating, Schumacher - in his last ever qualifying session - did only a very slow lap in the fuel-burn phase before retiring to the pits. He did not re-emerge, although early speculation of a ten-place penalty appeared to be wide of the mark with suggestions of a throttle or fuel feed problem.
The German is provisionally tenth on the grid, while title favourite
Fernando Alonso went fourth best.
Schumacher's problem follows that of pole sitter Massa, who only just made it onto the track for the start of the 'knockout' qualifying format after an apparent gearbox change.
Source GMM
