Schumacher disappointed by stewards call

Michael Schumacher said he was disappointed with the decision to hand him a 20 second penalty for a late incident in the Monaco Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion was handed the penalty after stewards decided he had passed Fernando Alonso illegally on the final lap of the race after the Safety Car peeled into the pits as the drivers headed to the chequered flag.

The penalty saw him drop from sixth to twelfth in the result and the German said he was disappointed with the decision taken.

"My race today would have been pretty normal without the decision of the stewards afterwards," he said. "The start was interesting and it actually went according to plan. I managed to have a good pull-away but then I was a bit stuck and was caught by Rubens. So I had to wait for the opportunity to overtake and the team played it brilliantly. The crew was fantastic and thus the pit stop got me in front of him."

Schumacher added that he could understand why the team had elected to appeal against the decision.

"The result in the very end, which put me back to twelfth place for now, was obviously disappointing for me and I can fully understand that we are appealing the decision. Our understanding was that the 'safety car in, track clear' message meant we were back to racing conditions, so I went for it and overtook Fernando."