Williams: It wasn't all Michael

"If you were on the outside of Juan Pablo you wouldn't expect any mercy either," Sir Frank Williams said. "As I saw it, Michael was in trouble trying to get grip from his tyres and Juan must have known straight away that this was his chance to get ahead of him. Ten out of ten for trying, and I'm glad he got away with it, but it's not fair to say that it was all Michael. You take a risk when you go round the outside."

For Schumacher to have given up Tosa from where he was would have been highly uncharacteristic, even if it was disingenuous of one of the most spatially astute drivers on the track, to suggest, as Montoya claims, that he had not seen the Colombian.

More questionable, in fact, might have been the move Schumacher made to block Montoya from getting down the inside of the Ferrari into the Villeneuve chicane.

"He was slow out of the first chicane," Montoya said, "I went to pass, he closed the door on me and I had to back off. It's very disappointing to see racing like that."