Pizzonia: I thought he was trying to let me by.

Antonio Pizzonia admits that he carries ultimate responsibility for his clash with Juan Pablo Montoya at Spa, but only because he was not on the same lap as the McLaren man.

The pair collided with four laps to go after Pizzonia went to dry tyres and tried to unlap himself from the second placed car. He thought he was being allowed through, but when the Colombian closed the door the Williams test driver was stranded off the dry line, and was unable to stop.

Although the incident was missed by the TV cameras it was picked up by the circuit's own system, and thus officials were later able to see what happened. Ironically at first they, like McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, jumped to the conclusion that Montoya was passing Pizzonia.

"The stewards didn't know anything about it," said Pizzonia. "Initially they were asking me why I didn't let Juan past, if I didn't see any blue flags, but obviously the story is totally different, I was trying to pass him.

"I came into the pits to change tyres for the dry, with four or five laps to go. I came out of the pits behind Juan. I was maybe three or four seconds behind him. Obviously I was much quicker than him, because I was on slicks. I caught him very, very quickly. He was braking very early to all the corners. Maybe he had a problem with the tyres or brakes or something. So he braked very early, and I thought he was trying to let me by.

"Then I put the car next to him. He did his normal line, so obviously he didn't see I was there. I tried to stop the car, but it was damp, so I couldn't avoid a crash. It's my fault because I was one lap behind. But you know, I had two options - stay behind him for the whole race being four seconds quicker than him, or try something. I just tried there because like I said he braked very early, and I thought he saw me. I thought he was trying to let me by, but unfortunately he didn't."

He was eventually fined $8000 rather than given a 10-place penalty at his next race, as it was assumed that he was not going to race again this year. Ironically during the day Williams had been made aware that Nick Heidfeld would not be available for Brazil after a bicycle accident, and thus Pizzonia may yet drive at his home event.

As Pizzonia didn't finish a flying lap on dry tyres it's impossible to judge how much quicker than Montoya he would have been. However team mate Mark Webber, who had also just stopped for dries, was lapping in the 1m 52s bracket -some eight seconds faster than the McLaren driver.