Monaco Steward: Qualifying decision was painful

Joaquin Verdegay, one of the race stewards at the Monaco Grand Prix, has said it was a painful decision to punish Michael Schumacher for his actions during Saturday's qualifying in Monte Carlo.

Verdegay said that all the evidence pointed out that Schumacher acted deliberately and that it wasn't a driver's mistake. "It was a painful decision because we could not make a mistake and put the reputation of the driver at risk," he told Gazzetta dello Sport. "We don't know for sure if the entire manoeuvre was deliberate, but in that spot he had certainly not done anything like it throughout the weekend. Schumacher braked over 50% more heavily than on the other laps he did. He then performed some absolutely unnecessary and pathetic counter-steering, and that lasted five metres, until there was no more chances of going through the turn normally."

"He lost control of his car while travelling at only 16km/h. That is something completely unjustifiable. And the engine only shut off because he wanted it to by losing enough time before hitting the clutch. And the excuse that he did not engage reverse because there was traffic doesn't make sense at all."

"If he had damaged his Ferrari we would have probably filed the matter as an error," Verdegay admitted. "We have only applied article 116 of the sporting regulations which says: if a driver affects the results of other drivers by committing an error, you can cancel all of his lap times."