Mayhem at the first corner

What a plot! Mayhem at the first corner with cars cartwheeling in the air. The runaway leader in the championship dropped out in a chaotic restart. Two old rivals got nasty. The crowd booed the winner and the title race was transformed.

Bernie Ecclestone couldn't have asked for more. It reminded the world that Formula One can put on a show as spectacularly as any sport.

And yet again Michael Schumacher stands accused - by Williams, fuming at the way Heinz Harald Frentzen was forced off the track by Schumacher's charge out of the pits and by Damon Hill, convinced the German now drives to his own set of rules.

Schumacher laid the first blow: "If someone wants to kill you, he should do it in a different way. Damon and I were doing 200 mph down there and for someone to move off line three times is simply unacceptable.

Schumacher: I was so angry

"You cannot have a situation where you come so close to touching each other. I was so angry and I wonder why he didn't get a penalty for what he did.

"It is impossible for such an experienced man to do such things. I can't handle that and I will be having words with him."

Hill was distinctly unimpressed by the outburst and gave as good as he got, with interest. "We were racing for position, racing for second place. He's always threatening to do something but he is never brave enough to come to see me.

"If he did, I'd tell him straight. And in any case, he can't complain after the way he came straight out onto the track and pushed Frentzen off. It's not the sort of thing a professional driver should do. There's a way of racing without being a brute."

Schumacher celebrates a controversial win

Williams, it seemed, agreed. But their protest was rejected. the stewards (one of whom sat in judgement in Jerez last year) considered the 10-second time penalty in the race sufficient punishment.

Others, including Hill, thought otherwise: another case of Schumacher being let off the hook for the sake of the championship. "He's a talented driver but he's occasionally given the benefit of the doubt. for some reason he's treated leniently and that's given him the feeling he can do what he likes," said Hill.

Schumacher did apologise to Frentzen face to face. "I looked in my mirror and saw nothing then looked to my right and still saw nothing," he said. "So when I was called in for a penalty I didn't understand as I knew I hadn't broken the speed limit in the pit lane."

That answer hardly tallies with Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn who defended his driver. "We knew where Frentzen was and kept Michael informed over the radio."

Still, nobody was hurt. Alexender Wurz survived "the craziest race of my career" and proved the value of Formula One's new crash test structures.

Who's complaining now about Formula One's lack of entertainment? Predictable procession? I think not. Ron Dennis wouldn't have enjoyed it but the rest of us had a ball.