JUNE 18, 2005

Ralf has to wait for medical clearance

Ralf Schumacher must wait until Saturday for clearance to take part in qualifying for the US Grand Prix after a big crash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The German repeated the accident he had last year at the Speedway but the impact was reduced by the fact that the Toyota spun once before the car hit the barriers. After the crash Schumacher was sent off to Methodist Hospital for precautionary checks after complaining that his vision was blurred. Ralf had a brain scan and must now pass a medical examination on Saturday morning before being allowed to qualify. If he is not fit the job will go to Ricardo Zonta, the team's reserve driver.

The cause of the accident remains uncertain but seems to have been tyre related and came just a few minutes after Ricardo Zonta spun with a suspected left-rear tyre failure.

"So far what we can see is that both Ricardo's and Ralf's accidents came as a result of a tyre-related issue," said Toyota's chief race engineer Dieter Gass. "On both occasions we had no early indication from the tyre pressure sensors so it was a fast deflation. We don't know the reason why at the moment, so we will now set about analysing the data to understand exactly what happened."