Schumacher Receives 10-Place Grid Penalty for Move on Barrichello

Michael Schumacher was handed a ten-position grid penalty by the FIA stewards after the Hungarian Grand Prix, a consequence of the incident between him and Williams-Cosworth racer Rubens Barrichello.

In the late stages of the Sunday race, Rubens Barrichello made his pit stop – under the FIA rulebook, one mandatory pit stop applies to every driver in an F1 race – and dropped from 5th to 11th with a few laps to go. However, in a matter of minutes, the Brazilian veteran closed the gap on 10th placed Michael Schumacher and started pressuring the 7-time world champion for the last point available on Sunday.

Needless to say, given the great rivalry between those two, the fight provided the fans with plenty of excitement, especially since the Williams racer was so much faster than the German, while the latter was closing every door on the technical, twisty circuit of Hungaroring.

With a couple of laps to go, Barrichello finally managed to overtake Schumacher, but not before the German almost pushed him into the wall. After the pass, the Brazilian burst at his race engineer for Schumacher's maneuver, asking for the black flag (disqualification) for the Mercedes GP driver.

“It was the most dangerous maneuver against me I have ever known,” said Barrichello in an interview with the BBC after the race.

“He's taking something from the past into the present – his view is that I'm a big crier. What do the public think?” added the Brazilian, who has been a constant criticizer of Schumacher ever since he left Ferrari 5 years ago.

His comments were echoed by several other figures in the paddock, including Lotus' Mike Gascoyne. The Brit argued that Schumacher should be banned for such a dangerous move, while former grand prix driver and current BBC commentator David Coulthard said: “It could have been a horrible accident. He never knows when to give it up, but perhaps now he should with his comeback.”

Additionally, Barrichello's former teammate at Brawn GP Jenson Button said that: “It's pretty hard to say it's someone else's fault if you put him into the pitwall.”

This is not how Schumacher looks at it though, as the German believes the penalty from the stewards was too harsh.

“We know certain drivers have certain views, and there's Rubens. I was making it obvious to him to go on the other side. There was more room there, but he chose not to. It got a bit tight. We didn't touch; I guess I left enough room,” said Schumacher