Schumacher crashes, Webber sets the pace

SUZUKA, Japan,(Reuters): Michael Schumacher crashed out of Japanese Grand Prix practice on Friday, a day after announcing his retirement, while Australian Mark Webber set the pace for Red Bull.

Schumacher, a seven times champion and winner six times at Suzuka, went wide into the Spoon corner and lost control with the car slewing sideways into the tyre wall.

The 43-year-old German removed the steering wheel, extricated himself from the cockpit, patted a marshal on the back and helped tidy up some debris before walking away. He had been fifth fastest in the morning.

“I had to go to the medical centre...but I’m 100 percent okay,” said Schumacher. “I think I was already concentrating on too much on the corner ahead of me and therefore had a wheel on the dirt and went off.”

Force India’s Paul Di Resta had earlier gone off at the same place, a slip that left him without a timed lap in the afternoon session.

 His team mate Nico Hulkenberg was fourth fastest.

Webber’s best lap of one minute 32.493 seconds was the quickest of the day after McLaren’s Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton had led the opening session at one of the classic drivers’ tracks.

Button, last year’s race winner in Japan but with a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race after a gearbox change, set a time of 1:34.507 on a sunny morning at the Honda-owned figure of eight circuit.

McLaren will be chasing a fifth successive pole position on Saturday, the team’s best run of qualifying form since 1999 when Finland’s Mika Hakkinen chalked up five in a row, but Webber showed championship leaders Red Bull would be hard to beat.

The Australian was third fastest in the morning, a position filled by team mate and double world champion Sebastian Vettel in the afternoon.