Montoya Blames Penalty for Ruining Race

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya blamed a drive-though penalty for spoiling his chances of a good result at the United States Grand Prix.

Williams' championship contender Montoya was forced to take a costly time penalty after Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello spun out after a clash with the Colombian. The race stewards launched an immediate investigation into the incident and forced Montoya to take a time penalty which he took driving through the pits.

After that, the swashbuckling Colombian, winner of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis three years ago, was ruled out of the reckoning. Montoya, a crowd favourite and many people's pre-race title tip, has now 82 points after finishing sixth and cannot catch Championship leader Michael Schumacher in Japan.

"A very disappointing race, basically decided by the penalty I was given for the accident with Rubens and the moment I had to pay it," said Montoya. "Due to the changeable weather conditions, in fact, it started to rain hard just when I was given my 'drive through' penalty, which forced me to delay by one lap my pit-stop to change onto wet tyres.

"It is sad to lose my Drivers' Championship chances in this way, especially knowing that I just needed to finish fifth today, to keep my hopes open."

Ferrari are now in the lead of the Constructors' Championship after Montoya's teammate Ralf Schumacher went out of the race on lap 22.

"When it started to rain quite heavily around lap 20 I stayed out on the track one lap too much which was unfortunately due to a misunderstanding with my engineers on the pitwall," said Ralf. "It was obviously not the right decision and I spun on the track which had become very slippery, hit the barriers and had to retire from the race.

"The conditions out there were very difficult, very challenging. It was a very disappointing end, especially because I was right up there amongst the leaders and ahead of Michael and Kimi."