The Italian press on Monday paid tribute to ‘captain’ Michael Schumacher, after the retiring German’s last title attack went up in smoke on lap 37 at Suzuka.

Sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport praised the 37-year-old Ferrari driver for the way he coped with his first engine failure in 111 races, which all but mathematically hammered the nail in the coffin of his eighth championship crown.

”He thanked his team for their efforts on the saddest day of the season,” La Gazzetta wrote.

Tuttosport said Schumacher behaved like a ‘true captain’ after the failure by hugging his colleagues and not running away or losing his temper.

The newspaper wrote: ‘Schumacher is a gentleman’, while Corriere della Sera noted that he ‘embraced his mechanics instead of criticising his team’.

La Repubblica was critical of Ferrari, however, after the Italian team ‘let Schumacher down in the most important moment’.

Predictably, the Spanish press pedalled a similar line in rejoice of countryman Fernando Alonso’s Check-Mate for the title.

El Mundo said Ferrari had ‘committed Harakiri’, which is a form of traditional Japanese suicide involving slashing a sword across one’s stomach. The daily Marca, meanwhile, admired Schumacher for ‘accepting defeat like a man’.

[GMM]