Schumacher cleared of blue flags infringement

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher has been cleared of ignoring the blue flags during the Indian Grand Prix.

Schumacher was summoned to appear before the stewards following the race at the Buddh International Circuit, the 17th round in the 2012 F1 World Championship, but after hearing from him and from Romain Grosjean, the 'victim', and after viewing the video evidence, no 'further action' was deemed necessary.

"The Stewards considered that the driver of car 10 [Grosjean] did not close the gap to car 7 [Schumacher] sufficiently to require car 7 to move out of the way in accordance with Appendix H Article 2.4.5.1(d) of the International Sporting Code," explained the stewards of the meeting, which included 1980 F1 World Champion Alan Jones.

Schumacher's race meanwhile was another to forget and it went wrong right at the start when he suffered a right-rear puncture following contact with Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne.

Although the 43-year-old could continue, he had to stop five laps from the end due to what the team said was a gearbox issue. Schumacher was classified 22nd.

"That was a pretty unsatisfactory race today," reflected the record-breaking multiple F1 world champion. "It was effectively over just after the start; I lost so much time getting back to the pits with the puncture that any hope of scoring points was gone.

"In the meantime, the pace was pretty good but I was too far behind to make up more than a few positions. In the end, we had to retire the car for technical reasons."

Team-mate Nico Rosberg didn't fare much better either, and he ended up eleventh in the sister car, missing out on the final point with 8 laps to go, when he was passed by the Williams of Bruno Senna.

"Finishing just outside of the points is always tough, and it was a hard afternoon for us out there. Starting with new tyres, I hoped to be able to make up a couple of places but we just didn't have the pace so I had to keep fighting off the cars coming from behind me," Rosberg added.

"It's a difficult time for us but we are learning for next year so that is one positive..."