Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello said he was "sad" after being blocked by former Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher in qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix on Saturday.

Barrichello 'sad' after Schumacher block

Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello said he was "sad" after being blocked by former Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher in qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix on Saturday.

The 38-year-old Williams driver was at full speed trying to make it through to the final period of qualifying at the new Yeongam circuit on Saturday when he felt he was baulked by the Mercedes of the seven-time world champion.

Barrichello still scraped through to the top 10 for the third part of qualifying, and will start Sunday's race from 10th position, alongside the German on the grid.

The Brazilian was heard to complain about Schumacher's tactics to race director Charlie Whiting over the radio, and Schumacher approached Barrichello to apologise after qualifying.

Barrichello said: "I don't want it to become very personal.

"I am a little bit sad about the situation, because it is only luck that I passed on to Q3 because he really slowed me down."

"He just came to apologise in a way that the team didn't tell him (that Barrichello was behind). I was on a fast lap, and you have mirrors and you cannot count on everything from the team."

Barrichello spent six years as Schumacher's teammate at Ferrari and was infamously asked by the team to move aside to let Schumacher win the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix.

The two clashed earlier this year when Schumacher moved across on Barrichello as their cars passed by the pit wall in Hungary, a manoeuvre Barrichello called "horrible".

Schumacher was given a 10-place grid penalty by race stewards for the next Grand Prix in Belgium after the incident.

"We had problems in the past, we still have problems in some situations like in Hungary," Barrichello said.

"I am a down-to-earth guy, a very cool guy, which means I have a lot of respect even for the slowest cars and to the quickest ones. We all make mistakes, and we are allowed to make a mistake and to apologise."

u00a0

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels