Montoya not blaming Schu

Juan Pablo Montoya is neither accepting blame nor levelling it at Michael Schumacher after their collision in Monaco's tunnel, but the Colombian has pointed out that it is not the first time Schumacher has triggered such a situation. But it is, he pointed out, the first time that Michael has come off worst in such circumstances

Schumacher and Montoya have clashed before in drivers briefings about the technique behind a Safety Car, with Montoya claiming that Schumacher does it in such a way that he can't be closely followed.

As far as this latest incident was concerned, Montoya said: "He was doing a burn-out, I was doing a burn-out. He accelerated really hard and so did I, then he stepped on the brakes really hard. I moved to the right to try and avoid him and put the car up against the wall so we wouldn't hit, but we just touched.

"If he was braking that hard he should have done it in a different place - not in the middle of the tunnel. It's very hard to judge. I moved offline to try not to hit him and he came over exactly to where I was. I didn't have anywhere else to go. It was so unpredictable. He just stood on the brakes and you could see the left-front locked for quite a while. As soon as I saw the smoke, I straightaway tried to avoid him but there was nowhere to go.

"I'm not going to blame him and I'm pretty happy I didn't do anything on purpose. I would put it down to a racing incident. If he wants to say anything else, I don't care really. My mind is pretty clear.

"We had a similar problem in Austria last year on the parade lap and I couldn't keep up with him because of the way he did it. And look at what happened with Jenson in 2000 at Monza. Jenson had to throw it off the track to avoid him. So it's not the first time it's happened - it's just the first time he's been affected by it."