F1 Monaco Update & Amended Result

Michael Schumacher's last minute dive to pass Fernando into Anthony Noades corner on the last lap at Monaco after the safety car went into the pits was deemed an illegal act and has earned him a 20 second penalty dropping out of the points down the twelfth. Any appeal against the judgement has now been ruled out by Mercedes.

The ruling for this year is covered by section 40.123 of the FIA Sporting Regulations and reads as follows and I quote "If the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed, it will enter the pit-lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking". That seems to make it clear for all concerned and you can rely on Michael to test the rule book.

It was thought Ruben's accident was caused by the suspected loose drain cover but that has now been denied by the team . It appears his car had a left rear suspension failure. Patrick Head commented the was some sort of failure in the left rear suspension either in the suspension itself or something in the drive train.

The decision about the tyre manufacturer/s for 2010 is to be announced shortly. The teams need to know as quickly as possible allowing them to continue purposeful development of the cars for 2011. It appears Michelin and/or Pirelli are both in contention.

It would appear Dietrich Mateschitz is convinced that Mark Webber's dominant runs and back to back wins in Spain and Monaco has persuaded him to retain Mark and partner Sebastian Vettel for next season. There have been rumours that Mark would go across to Ferrari to replace Massa for 2011 so we will have to await developments and confirmation of who goes where.

There was talk of Kimi Raikkonen taking Mark's place at Red Bull but the Finn has yet to decide whether he wants to return or not and in any case Mark's retention at Red Bull would now appear to rule that out. The silly season will start shortly and we will have to ait and see.