From the FIA Stewards report:

"having set a fast time in sector one, the driver lost time in sector two, arrived at Turn 18 at a speed little, if any, different from his previous fastest lap, and braked with such force that his front wheels locked up, requiring the driver to regain control of the car.

"The driver ultimately did so without hitting the barrier on the outside of Turn 18. The engine of the car subsequently stalled, with the result of the car partially blocked the track.

"Having compared all relevant data, the stewards can find no justifiable reason for the driver to have braked with such undue, excessive and unusual pressure at this part of the circuit, and are therefore left with no alternatives but to conclude that the driver deliberately stopped his car on the circuit in the last few minutes of qualifying, at a time at which he had thus far set the fastest laptime."

I'm glad he has been punished, because now he'll think twice about trying it again.

Cowardly, obvious and lame attempt to fake an accident.

Although it's good to see him punished for it I'm still a little bummed about how alonso is going to now win by about 23 laps with no one even close.

Damn you Michael for ruining my Sunday

Great!

Ferrari starting from position 21 and 22 in MONACO. :ices_rofl

Quote from Ryanry64 :

... I'm still a little bummed about how alonso is going to now win by about 23 laps with no one even close.

I wouldnt be that sure about that, Räikkönen did set the fastest lap of the weekend at the second Q.

Quote from traxxion :

Of course it was on purpose and of course he will never admit. This exactly is the reason why I admire the guy, it's straight genious if you ask me.

It's straight BS if you ask me...

no wait,

It's straight A-hole...

well, sometimes its not easy to be schumacher fan ... but i think FIA did the right thing...

btw: alonso never finished on the podium in monaco :P

Quote from Ryanry64 :

Damn you Michael for ruining my Sunday

There's still the Indy 500!

Monaco is never something to look forward to anyway... illepall

Quote from Blackout :

I wouldnt be that sure about that, Räikkönen did set the fastest lap of the weekend at the second Q.

That highlights one of the biggest problems with the current Qualifying -the time they are on low fuel and potentially showing how fast they really can go, the aim is to make the cut, not necessarily set the fastest lap. You can imagine those that run the risk of being cut are pushing as fast as possible, but those who, given a clean lap, will easily advance to Q3 are probably less likely to push the limit and risk the car.

In the last session, where being fastest is the aim, it's all clowded by fuel strategy.

Having said that, I think given Kimi's qualifying and JPM's practice times, McLaren are in better shape to give Alonso a race than they've been recently. Throw in Williams on the Bridgestone's, and it could still be interesting despite the loss of Michael from the battle.

Quote from Tigershark :

There's still the Indy 500!

Monaco is never something to look forward to anyway... illepall

I like Monaco just to see cars doing 170mph between narrow barriers.

Indy 500? Is that them darn circle races? Better go get my pitchfork

As for Raikkonen, yes he was quick but I can't remember the last time a Mclaren really shone in the race

i dont get whats so bad about slowing down and not making a turn?

surely there is more to it?

Lol, the Indy 500 became total rubbish about 10 years ago imo... Monaco is a far better experience to watch for the avid F1 fan. Unfortunately most people think F1 is only exciting when people overtake, and don't see the whole picture, but Monaco BETWEEN practice sessions is more exciting for me than the Indy 500.

I still don't think Schumi 'cheated'. Massa deserved to be at the back. Maybe Super Aguri need a couple of new drivers? Montoya and Massa will be going cheap soon

Quote from tristancliffe :

I still don't think Schumi 'cheated'.

I'm surprised by your view on this, to me it was just so weird I immediately thought, "he must have hit the inside wall and broken something", and then I saw that he steered it to where it ended up.

Anyway, I'm curious about what your thoughts are (because you're obviously not a dumb lad ), what you think happened, or do you mean that you don't think stopping on track is "cheating"?

Im a fan of ferrari, but i really think that michael schumacher cheats.illepallcrazy thing and unfair for the others.

Quote from sinbad :

or do you mean that you don't think stopping on track is "cheating"?

i sure dont.. thats like saying.. hm.. thats saying that every time i stop while going to get groceries or something.. im .. cheating? wtf is that? illepall

how is stopping.. cheating, i see it as a problem, but cheating is... for an advantage, not the opposite

Quote from XCNuse :

i sure dont.. thats like saying.. hm.. thats saying that every time i stop while going to get groceries or something.. im .. cheating? wtf is that? illepall

how is stopping.. cheating, i see it as a problem, but cheating is... for an advantage, not the opposite

I didn't quote you did I Nuse?

Quote from XCNuse :

how is stopping.. cheating, i see it as a problem, but cheating is... for an advantage, not the opposite

The problem is that the GPDA and the FIA made clear rules about red flags and cars stopping on the track.

Schumi knew what he was doing, he knew that stopping there would create a double yellow situation just as he knew that steering into a williams car (adelaide and jerez) gives you a 50% chance to be a world champion..

He's a great driver, there's no denying that, but he doesn't have to cheat like that and the times at silverstone to be #1, I just don't know why he would do that.
I mean, who talks about Fangio being a cheat.. Senna being a cheat? hell.. Even Mansell, a quite agressive driver, isn't considered a cheat even though he did weird things to overtake people.. and that's the issue.. Overtaking instead of knocking out the overtaker.

Quote from XCNuse :

i sure dont.. thats like saying.. hm.. thats saying that every time i stop while going to get groceries or something.. im .. cheating? wtf is that? illepall

how is stopping.. cheating, i see it as a problem, but cheating is... for an advantage, not the opposite

From the F1 sporting regs:
116b) If, in the opinion of the stewards, a driver deliberately stops on the circuit or impedes another driver in any way during the qualifying practice session his times will be cancelled.

So, deliberately stopping on the track during qualifying is cheating. As we're talking about an F1 qualifying session, I'm not sure what the relevance of stopping when grocery shopping has

Fresh news: Schumi leaving from the last place! Alonso on the pole.

Saw this one coming tho, it was too obvious cheating, stupid too.

Quote from Matrixi :

Fresh news: Schumi leaving from the last place! Alonso on the pole.

Saw this one coming tho, it was too obvious cheating, stupid too.

*ehm* no he isn't.

Quote :

Michael Schumacher has been dumped to eighth on the grid for the incident at the end of qualifying. The FIA Stewards decided after seven and a half hours.

from http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns16894.html

Quote from tristancliffe :

Lol, the Indy 500 became total rubbish about 10 years ago imo... Monaco is a far better experience to watch for the avid F1 fan.

Normally I would agree that any GP is preferable to an IRL race, but that depends if you have to suffer the CBS tape-delayed coverage of Monaco or not. As it's taped delayed, I may as well watch the Indy500 live and then watch the Monaco GP afterwards.

The Indy500 did initially suffer when CART split, but nowadays you have some great drivers in very even cars.

Quote :

ALL the drivers jump on the throttle and brake alternately. JPM, one of the worst drivers on the grid in my opinion, should have known the Schumi was going to brake. 1. He was doing it all through the lap and 2. The pace car wasn't far in front, so at some point he HAD to brake. For me it cemented JPM as a great big pillock, and the biggest waste of space

You've all forgotten the tunnel wasn't so well lit then and also at safety car speeds the acceleration and decelleration of F1 cars is very extreme, JPM got caught out, he cant see much in the tunnel anyway, so maybe he was checking a dial etc.. That accident was another Schumacher Special.

As for this one, it takes something like 1.2 seconds to decelerate an F1 from 100mph to a standstill. He was doing 30-40mph, and the accident took several seconds to creap up to the barrier.

As for whether that makes him a genius, well I could do a lot of dodgy things* in LFS to improve my race results, but all of them would get me kicked out of the league...

*Does not refer to the two drivers I took out today by accident...

Quote from Rappa Z :

*ehm* no he isn't.

from http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns16894.html

Interesting, according to finnish news he's starting from the back of the grid:
http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/ ... rkistot/f1/2006/05/447977 (finnish text only, sorry)

Quote from Rappa Z :

*ehm* no he isn't.

from http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns16894.html

Well, from the ITV website it looks like Schumacher is at the back, rather than 8th:

REVISED MONACO GP GRID
Monaco Grand Prix provisional starting grid
1. ALONSO Renault
2. WEBBER Williams
3. RAIKKONEN McLaren
4. MONTOYA McLaren
5. BARRICHELLO Honda
6. TRULLI Toyota
7. COULTHARD Red Bull
8. ROSBERG Williams
9. FISICHELLA Renault*
10. R.SCHUMACHER Toyota
11. KLIEN Red Bull
12. LIUZZI Toro Rosso
13. BUTTON Honda
14. VILLENEUVE BMW
15. HEIDFELD BMW
16. ALBERS Midland
17. MONTEIRO Midland
18. SPEED Toro Rosso
19. SATO Super Aguri
20. MONTAGNY Super Aguri
21. MASSA Ferrari
22. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari**
* docked three fastest laps for impeding Coulthard

** sent to back of grid for deliberately causing yellow flags

who knows? i think he will be at the back of the grid though.