From GMM

Italian car manufacturer Ferrari has denied reports that seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher was at the wheel of a prototype test road-car that crashed at the Nurburgring last week.

We reported on Monday that Schumacher, the retired seven-time world champion, was testing the 430 Scuderia test mule when it was written off at 250kmh against a guardrail on the Nurburgring's infamous Nordschleife layout.

But Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni insists that while Schumacher, 39, was in the passenger seat and had driven the car that day, it was road car test driver Raffaele de Simone who was at the wheel at the time of the crash.

"It is normal that test drivers swap seats to compare opinions," he is quoted as saying by Bild newspaper, which says eyewitness reports identified the actual driver of the car to be Schumacher.

Colajanni continued: "In this case, de Simone lost control of the car and went into the guard rail."

He said both Schumacher and de Simone were unhurt.