Schumacher penalised for Senna crash

Seven times Formula One World champion Michael Schumacher received a five-place grid penalty for the Monaco Grand Prix after crashing into the back of Bruno Senna during the Spanish Grand Prix.

On lap 12 of the Grand Prix on Sunday, the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher ploughed into the back of the Williams of Bruno Senna, ending both of their races.

The incident happened at the end of the main straight going into the first corner, Brazilian Senna had defended his position by holding the centre of the track and with Schumacher a long way behind he moved slightly to get a better angle to take the turn under breaking, while still leaving a full cars width to the outside of the turn and a lot of room for Schumacher to make a move down the inside.

Schumacher firmly blamed Senna for the incident explaining to the BBC: 'If you look at the overhead shot you can see he moves right to defend his position and then in the braking point he moves left, And I couldn't avoid him.

'It's in the braking phase. I'm very much annoyed about that. In Brazil (last year there was) a strange manoeuvre from him, and just before (in this race) he had an incident with Grosjean. I don't know what happened there.'

Senna of course didn't agree with Schumacher, but despite the video pictures clearly pointing blame at Schumacher, Senna decided remain much more diplomatic in his response to the collision.

'He's not going to say it's his own fault. He had much newer tyres than me. I guess our braking points are quite different then. I saw Romain Grosjean braking quite late and hitting me. I didn't want Michael to do the same. When I tried to brake he hit me.

'I had old tyres - of course his braking point was going to be much later than mine.'

The race stewards unsurprisingly sided with Senna following the incident being investigated after the race and Schumacher will receive a five-place grid penalty at the next Grand Prix which is at Monaco on May 27.