Alonso Made a Mistake, Says Ralf

Ralf Schumacher played down an incident with Fernando Alonso on Sunday after the Spaniard crashed out of the Monaco Grand Prix.

The 22-year-old Renault driver slammed into the tunnel guardrail 30 laps from the end of the glamour race while running in second place and trying to lap Ralf's Williams. A burst of flame in the dark highlighted the impact before Alonso's Renault skidded out of the tunnel exit and hit the barriers with the front of the car before sliding to a standstill.

"He just ran into some dirt. I'm sorry about it but it wasn't at all intentional," Ralf told reporters. "It's not true that I disobeyed the blue flag...I can understand his frustration but he went too far outside, ran into the dirt and then hit the wall.

"I can understand his being angry," added Ralf. "He's rather inexperienced in Formula One and made a mistake. It's clear that he would try to place the blame on someone else. Just wait a week and he'll be calmed down."

Alonso, meanwhile, slammed Schumacher and said the German should not race for a few races.

"Ralf moved to the right and slowed down," said the Spaniard, who accused Ralf of having ignored blue flags for the first seven corners warning him that there was a faster car trying to get past.

"I tried to overtake him but when we were side by side he went on the throttle again and pushed me into the barrier," added Alonso, whose Italian teammate Jarno Trulli won the race for his first Formula One victory.

"I hope they investigate the accident and they take his licence for three or four races. To race with people like this is always difficult," he added. "It happened with (Japan's Takuma) Sato in Bahrain, it happened to me in Imola and here as well. We risk our lives at circuits like this and it's difficult to race with people like that."