• Spanish Grand Prix

Schumacher hit with grid penalty

Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna spin off after colliding © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Spanish Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Michael Schumacher
• |
• Bruno Senna

• Teams:
• Mercedes
• |
• Williams

Michael Schumacher will serve a five-place grid penalty at the Monaco Grand Prix after the stewards decided he was to blame for his collision with Bruno Senna.

Senna was struggling for pace on worn tyres on the 12th lap when Schumacher piled into the back of his Williams in the braking zone of Turn One. Schumacher's Mercedes was forced to retire immediately while Senna quit a little later on the same lap.

An FIA statement read: "The driver of Car 7 Michael Schumacher collided with Car 19 Bruno Senna at Turn One and forced him to retire from the event."

A clearly angry Schumacher was heard to call Senna "idiot" over the radio, and although he was marginally calmer by the time he faced the media he was in no doubt where the blame lay.

"He [Senna] moved to the right, but he shouldn't move back in the braking phase to the left that sharply. I'm just behind him and I don't know how sharply he is going to move. So it was all very dangerous."

"We had a chance of good points today so it is doubly frustrating. I have to say I don't know what he was trying to prove but in Brazil last year he was driving into my car and today he was doing funny things. A lap before he had an accident together with Grosjean so I don't know what he was going through his mind."

A much more relaxed Senna said: "I prefer not to put the blame onto anyone. Of course he's not going to say it's his own fault, but at the end of the day he had much newer tyres than me, I was on very old rubber by then, so I guess our braking points were uneven.

"I'd already seen Grosjean braking very late and hitting me into Turn One, and I didn't want Michael to do the same. When I went to brake, he probably just tried to cross and he hit me, so what can you do?"

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.