Eddie Irvine saw his hopes of a top-10 qualifying slot in what could be his final race for Jaguar dashed when he stopped on the circuit and finished 14th.

McNish lost control at 130R Bend – one of the fastest parts of the demanding circuit – and was slightly lifted off the ground as he skidded across the gravel before smacking into the guard-rail.

The Toyota was left in tatters on the other side of the barrier and McNish was clearly winded by the impact as he hunched on his knees before lying on a grassy bank.

McNish only made his debut this year after waiting over a decade for his grand prix break and is searching for a drive for 2003 after being released by Toyota.

The Dumfries-born racer was able to wave to the crowd as he stepped into the emergency car with F1’s medical chief Professor Sid Watkins and is understood to be now recovering at his hotel in the circuit grounds.

McNish escaped more serious injury because he went into the barrier backwards and the measures to vastly improve car safety taken in the years since Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger died at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Professor Watkins said: “He has hurt his knee a bit and he is under observation in the medical centre. His condition is pretty good really.

“We will see him in the morning to see whether he is fit to drive. If he is he will have a go in the warm-up.

“He was lucky he went in rearwards and the armco took a lot of the energy. It performed well.

“It is a tribute to the cars, the designers and the engineers that they are much safer now.”

Toyota boss Ove Anderson said: “I hope everything will be okay, we will have to look at what happened. But we could hear on the radio that Allan was breathing.”

Williams test driver Marc Gene said: “He was lucky because he went into the barrier backwards. If he had gone in forwards it could have been a lot worse.”

Max Mosley, president of the sport’s governing body, FIA, said: “It was a very worrying accident.

“We have them now and again and when we have a big one like that we need to be lucky. Happily Allan could walk away.”

McNish, who will line up 18th on the grid if he takes part in what could be his final F1 race, has not yet spoken of the incident.

But when asked by reporters before qualifying whether he would prefer to drive a Ferrari, he quipped: “No, I prefer our car. I like oversteer, especially when it snaps out of control at 180mph.”

The session was immediately red-flagged by officials and delayed 75 minutes while the guard-rail was repaired.

World champion Schumacher soared to his seventh pole of the season – and 50th of his career – for Ferrari by just over 0.4secs from team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

McNish’s fellow Scot David Coulthard was third fastest from fellow McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen followed by the Williams-BMW duo of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Jenson Button will start his final race for Renault in 10th place.

McNish later admitted himself that he remains confident of taking his place on the grid for the race.

He said: “First of all, I feel fine. I have had a check-up and my knee is sore, but I am confident of getting back into the car tomorrow morning.

“Basically, everything felt good through the 130R corner but the car suddenly snapped into a big oversteer and I reversed heavily into the barrier.

“My natural instinct after the crash was just to make sure everything was still in working order and thankfully it is.

“I have got to see the medical crew tomorrow morning for a check-up but I am confident for tomorrow. The best thing is to get back in the cockpit as soon as possible.”