Twenty years on: Was this Monaco moment Michael Schumacher's most controversial F1 stunt?

On this day 20 years ago, Michael Schumacher found himself at the centre of Formula 1 controversy at the Monaco Grand Prix.

It was qualifying day at the Principality, and Schumacher had been outpaced by title rival Fernando Alonso in all three practice sessions.

The Renault driver had already bagged three wins from the opening six races and was looking to secure another victory on the streets of Monte Carlo to further strengthen his bid to defend his 2005 world title.

Alonso arrived in Monaco 15 points clear of Schumacher, who in contrast, had endured a difficult start to the season with Ferrari.

After the opening competitive laps of Q3, it was Schumacher who held provisional pole position with a 1m13.898s, fractionally ahead of Alonso who’d set a 1m19.980s on his first attempt.

Schumacher did not make any gains on his final run and as he went into Rascasse, he locked up his front right tyre and ran straight on, stopping just short of the barriers. The German parked up where he came to a halt, with the incident bringing out the yellow flags.

That ruined everybody else’s laps, including Schumacher’s nemesis Alonso, who had been behind his title rival on track at the time. As a result, he would miss out on a crucial pole to Schumacher by just 0.064 seconds.

Adding to Alonso’s frustrations, the Spaniard was on course to better Schumacher’s lap based on his first two sectors.

Speaking in the post qualifying press conference, Schumacher was quick to justify hid mistake, admitting his final lap attempt was “unfortunately just a touch too much”.

“I locked up the front and then went wide. I wasn’t sure what was going on after this, because, positioning of the cars and so on, I was not aware,” Schumacher added.

“In the end, I checked with the guys, ‘What’s the situation, where did we end up?’, because obviously I didn’t expect to be sitting here right now in this position, and they said ‘P1’, so obviously I was glad with all this… what happened.”

When journalists continued to question Schumacher, he snapped back: “No, I didn't cheat – and I think it is pretty tough to be asked if I did.”

Schumacher concluded his defence by stating: "Whatever you do in certain moments, your enemies believe one thing and the people who support you believe another. Some people may not believe it, but unfortunately that's the world we live in.”

At this point there were no accusations from Alonso, who simply stated that pole would have been his without the interruption.

However, when the FIA stewards announced the incident was under investigation, finger pointing over Schumacher’s uncharacteristically clumsy error began.

"I don't believe that he really had any problems,” was the verdict of McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Renault team principal Flavio Briatore went further, claiming: ”Given that we are not Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, I think that what he did was unsporting.”

And Jacques Villeneuve, who famously survived a failed attempt by Schumacher to take him out of the 1997 finale on his way to winning that year’s world title, accused his old rival of dirty tactics.

"There's no way you could make a mistake like that. I hope it was deliberate, because if you can make a mistake like that, you shouldn't drive a race car,” the Canadian said.

It took the stewards eight hours to reach a verdict on the matter and ultimately booting Schumacher out of qualifying.

The decision enraged Ferrari team principal Jean Todt, who said: “We totally disagree with it. Such a decision creates a very serious precedent, ruling out the possibility of driver error.

“Michael was on his final timed lap and was trying to put his first place beyond doubt, as could be seen from the fact that his first split time was the best.

“With no real evidence, the stewards have assumed he is guilty.”

Alonso went on to win the race, with Schumacher battling from the back of the grid to take fifth.

Despite a fightback from Schumacher, Alonso would go on to claim the championship and secure back-to-back world titles, putting an end to the spell of Schumacher and Ferrari domination.

Did Schumacher ever admit to cheating?

Schumacher never publicly admitted to deliberately causing the yellow flag in Monaco.

New details surrounding the accident were revealed in a 2020 Sky Sports documentary, The Race To Perfection.

According to an account from Schumacher’s then team-mate, Felipe Massa, Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn joked about causing a yellow flag during a team meeting ahead of qualifying.

“We had a meeting with the team, we were talking about the qualifying,” Massa said. “Then you had two sets of tyres for the qualifying. And Michael said something: ‘Yeah but, I mean, if we are quicker straight away and then we go in for the second set…’

“And Ross Brawn said: ‘Maybe we can create a yellow flag’. And I said: ‘For fun. Not seriously, for fun’.

“It happens, exactly that. So Michael used that funny thing for him to do. I remember [after] that meeting, I said ‘I can’t believe he did it’. He did it. And then the only thing is he was not able to say that he did it.

“It took one year for him to tell me that he did it on purpose. One year. I said, ‘How can you do that?’ It shows that everybody makes mistake in life, and this was, definitely.”

In the same documentary, Brawn said: “Michael had occasional aberrations, things that you could never give a logical explanation for. He had this incredible competitiveness that drove him. And sometimes it would short-circuit.

“Monaco pole, it’s normally a given you want it. But on that occasion, with the strategies that we had and the tyres we had and the car we had, there was actually no need for it. It was just a stupid move. And one of those little glitches, short-circuits that Michael had two or three times in his career.”