Michael Schumacher rapped for blocking move

• German debate: Michael Schumacher's Formula 1 comeback has not exactly gone to plan. Photograph: Getty Images

Michael Schumacher was reprimanded by race stewards yesterday for impeding the Williams of his former Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello in qualifying.

Barrichello had complained after the session that Schumacher had slowed him on a quick lap. However, Mercedes disputed that and team principal Ross Brawn suggested the Williams veteran had exaggerated the incident to try and gain an advantage. "I think the stewards took the correct view that Rubens wasn't on a fast lap," he told reporters after hearing that Schumacher had kept his ninth place grid position for today's race, with Barrichello tenth.

"I think it's disappointing if a driver claims he's on his best lap of the session when clearly it wasn't true. I think we need to get a balance on what goes on in qualifying because if the drivers try to gain positions by getting their competitors penalised, it's not correct."

The stewards said in their statement that, irrespective of Mercedes' opinion that Barrichello was not on a fast lap, Schumacher had a responsibility to use his mirrors and pay attention to warning flags.

"Rubens is of the view that Michael is impolite and doesn't give a (damn] about anything else. And you think 'plus ca change...'," said Williams co-owner Patrick Head with a smile when asked about the incident.

"If he was really on a quick lap and I blocked him, then I apologise," Schumacher said, while pointing out timing data showed Barrichello's first sector on the lap in question was four tenths of a second below flying lap speed. Barrichello was Schumacher's team-mate for six seasons at Ferrari, often having to play a subservient role and obey so-called "team orders" in favour of the German.

They have already had one big clash this season, with Schumacher handed a ten-place Belgian Grand Prix grid penalty for trying to drive him off the track and into a wall in Hungary as they battled for tenth place.

Barrichello said yesterday: "We have had problems in the past and are still having problems like in Hungary. I am a very cool guy and I have respect for the slowest and the quickest. We all make mistakes. He just came to apologise saying the team did not tell him, but he has mirrors. I am a little bit sad, but I don't want it to become personal.

"Unfortunately more than once it's happened that Michael doesn't seem to obey these things."

Meanwhile, the man who presided over Schumacher's greatest years has claimed the seven-times world champion is masking his true feelings about his disappointing Formula 1 comeback.

Former Ferrari team boss Jean Todt, now president of the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA), suggested that the 41-year-old German's relaxed public demeanour was a smokescreen.

"I don't think he is so relaxed, but he is a very proud guy and you need to know him very well before he will speak to you and tell you exactly what he feels," the Frenchman said in a rare interview. "He is protecting himself, which I can understand, but he is a very human, very fragile person, and he's not at all this strong kind of robot as he was portrayed very often in his career."

If Ferrari was like a second family to Schumacher, the most successful driver in the history of the sport, his relationship with Todt was particularly close.

The Frenchman knows plenty about pressure himself, even now keeping the fingernails on one hand taped over to prevent himself chewing them. "Michael is a very close friend and somebody I respect highly," said Todt. "He is a very strong-minded guy and he chose to come back. I'd rather see him in Formula 1 than riding a motorbike. I think it is much safer."

"He thought very carefully about the opportunity of coming back," added Todt. "However talented you are, if you stop for three years and if you don't drive the best car, it will not be easy - which is the case."

Schumacher has said he is focusing on next year, when Mercedes hope to provide him with a winning car. But there are still those in the F1 paddock who would not rule out an exit before then.

The German joined Todt's team at the end of 1994 with two championships to his name. By the time he retired in 2006, he had helped the Italian team to their greatest period of dominance with five successive drivers' titles and was the most successful driver in the history of the sport.

Todt hoped that Schumacher could add to his record tally of 91 wins but rejected any idea that failure to secure another victory would destroy his legacy. "What is certain is that he is a seven-times world champion with 91 wins, and nobody will take that away," he said. "The day he decides to stop he will either not have improved on that, or he will have increased those successes, but that will remain on his career CV."

Schumacher has yet to appear on the podium in 16 races this season, with his best result fourth places in Spain and Turkey.