Schumacher stripped of Monaco pole, to start last

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was banished to the back of the Monaco GP starting grid yesterday after stewards stripped him of pole position for a driving infringement.

They said in a statement that the seven-times champion had deliberately stopped his car on the track at the penultimate Rascasse corner in the closing seconds of qualifying, preventing rivals from setting a faster time.

Renault's Spanish world champion Fernando Alonso will now start on pole with Australian Mark Webber alongside in a Williams.

Nearly eight hours after qualifying had ended, and with Schumacher leaving the paddock after an impromptu meeting with reporters to protest his innocence, the governing International Automobile Federation issued the stewards' verdict.

The two page document found that the 37-year-old German had broken the rules on a number of counts.

"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 alternative but to conclude that the driver deliberately stopped his car on the circuit," they said.

"This is a breach of 2006 Formula One sporting regulations article 116 and hence a driving infringement," it added. "The stewards accordingly direct that the qualifying times of Michael Schumacher, the driver of car number five, be deleted.

"The effect of this is that... the driver will start the race from the back of the grid."

The verdict means that Ferrari will now have both cars at the back after Schumacher's Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa crashed out in the first part of qualifying.

Monaco's tight and twisting circuit is almost impossible to overtake on, meaning that Schumacher effectively has no hope of equalling the late Brazilian world champion Ayrton Senna's record of six Monaco wins in the race.

It is also a major blow to his hopes of an eighth title, with Alonso already 15 points clear after six races.

After the qualifying session, Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, who steered Schumacher to his first two titles at Benetton, had accused the German driver of unsporting behaviour.

"I think he is taking everyone for a ride," he told reporters. "Someone who was seven times a world champion wants us to believe that he didn't do it on purpose, it's fairyland.

"And given that we are not Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I think that what he did was unsporting and against everything... It's really astonishing what he did. Incredible."

In the usual news conference organised just after yesterday's qualifying session, Schumacher had denied anything underhand.

"I locked up and just ran out of road," said the 37-year-old.

"I tried to get reverse but was hesitant to move and finally I stalled."

He suggested that any critics who doubted him should try to drive the car themselves through the tight and twisty streets.

"Whatever you do in certain moments, your enemies believe one thing and the people who support you believe another," he added. "Some people may not believe it, but unfortunately that's the world we live in.

"I don't care what other teams do. I know Flavio well enough," added Schumacher.