Whitmarsh amazed at Schumacher incident
McLaren's F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh said he hopes Michael Schumacher did not deliberately stop on track in the dying moments of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, despite the incident appearing initially as "blatant poor sportsmanship."
Schumacher veered across on the exit to the penultimate corner while his main rival Fernando Alonso as well as others were on their final flying laps behind the German.
The incident caused immediate uproar across the paddock, and the race stewards have put Schumacher under investigation. Their decision is imminent.
But Whitmarsh said the incident raised questions over Schumacher's antics and hoped the Ferrari driver was able to provide a good explanation to the stewards.
"We don't have the data, so we don't know what happened, but it was an extraordinary incident," Whitmarsh told reporters at the Monaco paddock.
"Visually, it appears to be very unusual and strange. But maybe he has a good explanation, and he can convince the stewards otherwise...
"It would be very very sad to believe that this was a deliberate act, but I think plenty of people are looking at it, based upon only that information and none of the data... It looked very strange, it looked very extraordinary.
"I think the best comment I've heard on it since it happened was Kimi [Raikkonen]'s own view that in fact he should've taken one hand off the steering wheel, covered the camera with one hand, and done it with the other..."
Whitmarsh suggested, however, that should Schumacher be found to have acted deliberately, his punishment should be heavy and reflect the damage done to the sport's image.
"The stewards are investigating, and I hope they look at all the data and make a proper judgement as to what happened," the Briton said.
"If it is as cynical as I guess many people suspect, then it's a very, very sad day for Formula One, to see that level of blatant poor sportsmanship."
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