Schumacher 'blind or Stupid' Says Montoya

As Jenson Button was feted for his brilliant run to second place in the San Marino grand prix, the winner Michael Schumacher found himself accused of being "either blind or stupid" by Juan Pablo Montoya after the two men were involved in a skirmish for second place on the opening lap of what might well have been the last formula one race at Imola's Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

As Button made a perfect start from pole position Montoya accelerated his Williams-BMW up from fourth to within inches of the world champion's Ferrari as they jinked and weaved their way through the sequence of chicanes on the outward leg of a circuit not due to feature on the race calendar next season.

On the first straight Schumacher weaved in front of Montoya to prevent him overtaking and then pushed him off the road as he attempted to go around the outside of his Ferrari on the tricky uphill left-hand Tosa hairpin.

"Well, you know Michael had a poor start," said Montoya. "He was slow out of the first chicane, you know, the first turns two and three. I went to pass, he closed the door on me and I had to back off. Then he did the same out of the next corner and closed the door.

"So I went for the inside and I'm coming beside him and the next thing I see he's just coming straight at me, hit me and put me up the grass. It's very disappointing to see racing like that. I'll be surprised if he gets away with it but it's up to the FIA. You've got to be either blind or stupid not to see me but, you know, it is racing."

Schumacher would not be drawn on the matter and looked embarrassed as he sat in the post-race media conference listening to Montoya criticise his driving with a relaxed insouciance. In the event Schumacher had the last laugh as the FIA stewards judged it to be an incident which merited no sanction.

Not that Montoya's Williams-BMW was in the same class as Schumacher's Ferrari. Once he found his stride the world champion dropped the rest of the field at around a second a lap as he went on the offensive, relentlessly hunting down Button who had capitalised on the chaos behind him to open a 2.7sec lead by the end of the opening lap.

Button's early sprint was helped by the fact that his Michelin tyres come up to operating temperature much quicker than the Bridgestone rubber on Schumacher's Ferrari.

By lap four Schumacher had trimmed his advantage to 0.9sec but Button refused to be ruffled by the pressure and Schumacher was impressed. "It was mind-blowing what he did in front of me. I thought he was driving in the dry and I was in the wet. It was then I realised that it was going to be a very busy afternoon."

Button ducked in to make his first refuelling stop at the end of lap nine, after which Schumacher really piled on the pressure before making his first stop at the end of the 11th. When the race settled down again the familiar order had been restored with Schumacher now 6.1sec ahead of the young Englishman.

Thereafter the German held his lead without challenge through his second and third refuelling stops to beat Button by just over 9sec after easing back on the final lap. Montoya wound up a distant third, doubly frustrated by the fact that his new Williams-BMW is clearly unable to challenge the Ferrari in a straight fight.

Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli drove energetically to bring their Renaults home fourth and fifth ahead of Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari. David Coulthard had a dismal afternoon in his uncompetitive McLaren, finishing 12th after knocking his car's nose off in the first-corner scrum and having to stop to fit another.