Sunday June 4th, 2000

The Schumacher brothers had a bad day at Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, with Ralf crashing and cutting his leg and Ferrari's Michael retiring when victory seemed his for the taking.

Michael's disappointment was the greater after starting the Grand Prix on pole and leading in typically commanding fashion for the first 55 laps.

Then a sudden suspension failure forced the German former champion in to the pits and out of the 78-lap race.

He was more than 30 seconds ahead at one point and, after making a pit stop on lap 49, was still four seconds ahead of eventual winner David Coulthard who had yet to pit.

"Part of the suspension broke because something was wrong with the exhaust," said Schumacher, who was chasing his fifth victory in his last seven races here.

He remained top of the standings wth 46 points, to Coulthard's 34 and Hakkinen's 29.

"The exhaust was too hot and that was why the rest went wrong. It basically cooked the suspension."

"I felt a few laps before that something was wrong but there was nothing I could do about it," he said.

Schumacher took some comfort from the fact that world champion Mika Hakkinen, his McLaren rival, came only sixth.

"I could have picked up 10 points today but the driver I consider my main rival could also have done so," he said.