A taxi driver at the centre of a surprisingly international press story has refused to reveal precisely how fast Michael Schumacher drove his cab earlier this week.

Tuncer Yilmaz found himself the subject of media headlines after he told the Munich newspaper Abendzeitung that Schumacher, the retired seven time world champion, had given him a 100 euro tip after asking to take over the wheel in order to get his family to the airport on time.

The Turkish taxi driver said Schumacher, 38, drove "at full throttle" around corners while overtaking "in some unbelievable places", as his wife Corinna and two children also sat in the Opel mini-van.

"It was the coolest ride of my life.  And the fastest," Yilmaz, who drives a taxi around Coburg in Bavaria (Germany), said.

The story, in which Schumacher had travelled from Switzerland to collect a puppy, was confirmed by his spokeswoman Sabine Kehm and a Ferrari spokesman.

But the taxi driver refused to say how fast the German drove his cab.

"I don't want him to get into trouble," he insisted to the British newspaper The Sun.

Source: GMM