Schuey run ended with shunt

The Safety Car had appeared following a controversial accident that eliminated a furious Fernando Alonso who was running in second place for Renault behind eventual race winner Jarno Trulli.

At the moment Alonso's accident happened, Jenson Button pitted and so did Jarno Trulli, while Ferrari left Michael Schumacher out on the circuit, now the new race leader. With Schumacher having made his first pit stop six laps later than his main rivals, it meant that Ferrari's strategy was for Schumacher to attempt to run long enough to open a big enough margin to retain the lead after his next stop.

"He was going to run a lot longer and it was the only way we could win the race," confirmed Ferrari's Luca Baldisserri.

It is a regular technique for drivers following slow-moving Safety Cars to warm up the tyres and brakes, so that when it disappears, they can get straight back on their racing pace. But it can also lead to unpredictable circumstances.

Jenson Button said later: "You use the brakes a lot at Monaco and there is a lot of downforce on the cars with softer tyres than before and you tend to use harder brake materials. It is really, really hard to warm the brakes, and it's something I struggled with all weekend. You can't stop and then accelerate away again, but I don't think Michael did that."

Button himself was caught unawares and crashed when Schumacher adopted a similar technique in an earlier race at Monza.

Jarno Trulli, following the incident, said: "I tend to leave a gap to the car in front but Montoya did not seem to. Already at Mirabeau they almost crashed and I thought: hey, something might happen here. And it did!"