Isn't that a bit too harsh?

Michael Schumaker got penalized for "braking too agressively and excessively" at the final corner of qualifying, where he just avoided hitting the barriers and stalled his car, and was stripped off his pole position time and made to start from the back of the grid.

This made Fernando Alonso abort his hot lap which could have put him possibly on pole position.

The whole of the Formula 1 community has come out to blast Schumi for this "deliberate" incident. But nobody has stepped back to look at the incident.

Firstly, the worst that could have happened if Alonso made pole is Schumi would have had to start from second position. Big deal.

Secondly, all transmissions from the pit (radio as well as telemetry data) are available to the FIA. So if the team told him anything about Alonso's lap, it would be part of the recorded data and therefore made public. Since none of that was made, one can only deduce that the pit wall did not inform Schumi about anybody behind him.

And thirdly, it could have happened to anyone. People in F1 don't deliberately park their cars on curbs or go hurtling into walls. Last race, Montoya beached his car on a curb and could not get it off. The one before that, Fisichella took a long detour throught the gravel. So these guys are still human and can make mistakes.

Having said that, this is all water under the bridge. Schumi did start from the back of the grid. Actually he started from the pit lane and drove a brilliant race. Starting last on a track like Monaco where overtaking is definately not possible, Schumi was up four places before the first lap was over. He then got stuck behind Button for a while after which he pulled a stunning overtake coming out of the famed Monaco tunnel.

A single stop strategy saw him climb to 5th position. Had it been any other track. Schumi would have been on the podium. Monaco saw him land a little lower.

The unfortunate parts of the race were the retirements of Mark Webber and Kimi Raikonnen. They were both running 3rd and 2nd respectively and had driven brilliantly the whole race, but their car reliability left a lot to be desired and both came out of the race with engine failures. I really feel sad for them, despite the fact that I hate the Retard (aka Kimi). I am a fan of motor racing and don't like it when people who tried so hard have their engines choke on them.

So Alonso moves further away from everybody. If this trend continues, he is going to be world champion again.

I am hoping against hope that it does not go that way.