Monaco, May 27: Williams technical director Patrick Head denied that Montoya, who has not always seen eye-to-eye with Schumacher, had deliberately rammed the German off.
"No matter what Michael or Ross (Brawn) might think, Juan is not a dirty driver. He knows what respecting a fellow driver is and there were no dirty tricks," head said.
"Juan has said that Michael put the brakes on hard and I don't think that is a wise thing to do in a dark tunnel."
Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn believed Schumacher had an outside chance of snatching victory from Renault's Trulli after strategy had got the world champion up to third behind Button.
Brawn said: "It was very unfortunate. You don't want to go out of a race for that reason. We were informed that the safety car was coming in and it is normal to warm your brakes up.



"Juan Pablo hit the back of him.



"We had a chance of winning the race, not a great one but a chance. We had a lot of fuel left in the car and it may have been possible. It is very frustrating to go out like that."


Bureau Report