Speed-y retirement for Webber and Schumacher.

Mark Webber and Ralf Schumacher conceded their elimination from the British Grand Prix was a mere racing accident after the Toyota was tipped into a spin by Scott Speed and then collected the hapless Australian.

With Schumacher starting seventh, Speed in 15th and Webber in 17th, the trio may have been a fair distance from one another on the grid, but the Toyota was swamped at the start and as he slipped through the field, Speed attempted to carry his momentum into Becketts but instead clipped the German.

With Speed coasting off to the side of the track, Schumacher's recovery saw him drift into the path of Webber's Williams, with the duo retiring on the spot and the American too ambled to the pits and joined his rivals out of the race.

Despite being tipped into a spin, Schumacher accepted that the incident was more unfortunate than reckless, blaming the situation on himself after getting a poor start.

"Unfortunately that was just one of those things that happen in racing," he said. "It all began with my very bad start. I lost too many positions and found myself in traffic. That's how these things can kick off because in a mess like that no one really has any space. I had cars all around me so it was really difficult to see exactly what happened but I was hit from behind.

"That sent me into a spin, which meant that I couldn't help veering into Mark's path. It was a racing incident and no one is to blame because no one does anything like that on purpose. But it's the second time in a row that we have struggled off the line so we should now work hard on improving that."

Webber meanwhile was more concerned that the weekend had not heralded the same kind of pace that had put Williams among the leaders in Monaco.

"I had a pretty good start and made up a few places off the line. It looked like Scott Speed clipped Ralf on the right rear going into Becketts which caused the Toyota to spin and end up in my path.

"Ralf was obviously trying to save his car, which is fair enough, but he came directly back across the track when I was on the inside trying to get a clean run out, so I had nowhere to go. We've had a tough weekend so it's a shame we couldn't get something out of it."

Speed also shrugged off the accident, claiming that Schumacher probably wasn't expecting him to pass at such a tricky part of the circuit.

"I had a really awesome start and got past Tonio and Christian. I tried to get by Ralf as
well in the left hander at Becketts, as he seemed not to have got a good start and I had a lot of grip. I came up alongside him in the right hand part and then we just got tangled up together as I went round the outside of him. I don't think he was expecting me to be there. It was just a racing incident, but unfortunately it was the end of our day, as I had bent a track-rod."