MAY 13, 2012

Five place Monaco grid penalty for Schumacher

Michael Schumacher will start the Monaco GP with a five-place grid penalty after his Turn 1 coming-together with Bruno Senna on lap 13 of the Spanish GP. In the aftermath Schumacher blamed Senna for the incident.

Michael Schumacher, Spanish GP 2012
© The Cahier Archive

BY TONY DODGINS

Michael Schumacher will start the Monaco GP with a five-place grid penalty after his Turn 1 coming-together with Bruno Senna on lap 13 of the Spanish GP.

In the aftermath Schumacher blamed Senna for the incident.

"It's not easy to see from the TV replays but what happened from my viewpoint was that he went to the right to defend the inside line, and then suddenly, shortly before the braking point, went to the left," Schumacher said.

"When you are so tight together in the braking zone, you have no other choice than to try to react and avoid hitting, but it was too late."

Senna, predictably, saw it differently: "I had old tyres, I braked two metres before where I braked on the previous lap and then he just drove into me from behind, so what can I do?

"To be fair, the reason I moved left was that on the previous lap I saw Grosjean lunging from miles behind and I thought Michael was going to do exactly the same thing, but obviously it was not the same thing in his mind.

"It's the same as Brazil (last year). It's not personal, it's a racing incident and these things happen. Today I'm pleased for the team and at seeing these guys with smiles on their faces. Williams is a great winning team and it's been a long time for them without one!"

The race stewarding panel, which included eight-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, ruled Schumacher to have been in breack of Article 16, relating to causing a collision.