On Friday night Schumacher’s peers in the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association voted that he should apologise to his fellow countryman Heidfeld after their collision during the Australian race. Ferrari in trouble?It has been a bit of a bruising weekend for the team. Jenson Button was ninth, thanking his luck that he did not, after all, need an engine change (which would have cost him 10 grid places) after a morning oil leak. With Christian Klien edging his Red Bull team-mate David Coulthard out of the top 10, there were the makings of another unusual grid, but one which is a rather more valid pointer to form than was the case in the rain-interrupted qualifying in Melbourne.Some positions could have changed a little by race time depending on what fuelling strategy teams ran in the final qualifying session, but probably not materially.Which leads on to another surprise: by Saturday night there were no Ferraris in the top 10, as Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barri-chello languished in 12th and 14th places respectively.

You did not need outstanding perspicacity to anticipate that Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella would be at the sharp end of the grid when Formula One closed for business after the first qualifying session yesterday for today’s Malaysian Grand Prix here.
Nor that Kimi Raikkonen would be within striking distance in a McLaren that was not, to use their team chief Ron Dennis’s favourite word, “optimised” in Melbourne a fortnight ago. But, his own front-row performance Down Under notwithstanding, Jarno Trulli’s presence in a fighting second place in his Toyota was a surprise.Backing the long-haired Italian strongly, his team-mate Ralf Schumacher was fifth fastest, ahead of the BMW-Williamses of Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld, who sandwiched Juan Pablo Montoya. “It will be strange for me to play against his team and see Walter in the other dugout,” said Gattuso, whose wife, Monica, is Glaswegian “He is my favourite manager. Walter was like a second father to me when I went to Glasgow, because I was just a young boy.”He gave me my chance to play for a big team, and he will always be in my heart because of that I learned a lot from him I love the British style of football. It’s about running 100 per cent for 90 minutes and tackling like men In Italy, if you tackle a player they moan to the referee. The Scots will not do that.”Smith, though, will want his unfancied team to get in the faces of the Italians just as Gattuso and Co did when Milan won at Manchester United last month in the Champions’ League.”Going to Italy is a hard task for any team, at any time, not just our country,” he said “All I ask is that we make it tough for them.”. Yet his terrier approach was honed in Glasgow, under the watchful eye of Smith.Smith spotted Gattuso playing in a youth tournament for Perugia and enticed him to Rangers at the age of 17.

The combative midfielder won a Scottish Premier League title before Smith departed for Goodison Park.With his father figure gone, Gattuso could not take to Dick Advocaat and returned to Italy, where his rise has been remarkable.Smith met Gattuso last month when he went to Cagliari to watch Italy’s 2-0 friendly win over Russia They will embrace again in the San Siro. He is a proven winner with Milan, with a Champions’ League success and two Italian titles under his belt. “If I was frightened of not making something of the Scotland team, I would not have taken the job – I did not need to,” he said “There has been a lot of criticism and doom and gloom. Hopefully I can lift that.”There will be one eyecatching piece of evidence out on the San Siro pitch of the former Everton manager’s capacity to lift players beyond their limits – unfortunately, he will be playing for the Azzurri, not the dark blue of Scotland Rino Gattuso is the heartbeat of Italy’s midfield.