Monaco: Michael Schumacher's illegal pass of Fernando Alonso near the end of the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday relegated the Mercedes driver into 12th place.
Schumacher, on team orders, overtook the Ferrari driver at the last corner after the safety car had gone to move into sixth place. Alonso, who had started last, let the German pass after his team had instructed him that any overtaking would bring a penalty.
Governing body FIA imposed a 20-second penalty on Schumacher instead of a drive-through penalty as the illegal overtaking move occurred in the last five laps. That took the seven-time F1 champion out of the points.
Mercedes will appeal the decision.
"From the instructions we have from the FIA, the safety car was coming in on the final lap but the race wasn't finishing under the safety car and it's a very important distinction," Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn said. "So we advised our drivers that they could still race between safety car line 1 and the start-finish line."
The incident happened at the Anthony Noghes turn, where Schumacher parked his car in 2006 to keep Alonso from taking pole position. Schumacher started that race in last place.
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