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Ferrari slam Schumacher punishment
 'I locked up and just ran out of road,' said Schumacher. MONACO -- Ferrari defended Michael Schumacher after the German was stripped of pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix and sent to the back of the grid, and said the move sets a "serious precedent." Race stewards ruled that the seven times champion deliberately stopped his car at the slow penultimate corner of the track in the dying seconds of qualifying to prevent rivals from beating his time. Schumacher's manager Willi Weber slammed the stewards and blamed what he said were the driver's many "enemies in the paddock" for stirring up trouble. "I think it's a scandal what has happened," Weber told reporters. "In my opinion it was a driver's mistake in qualifying and I think this could happen to anybody... For me it's too hard and I cannot understand why the stewards found this decision. "Michael is not amused," he added. "If you know Michael, he's not an emotional man. It takes a little while and he will speak and say something after the race." Weber said what had happened would have no bearing on Schumacher's future in the sport, with the 37-year-old yet to decide whether to carry on racing after the end of the season or call it a day. "We had something like this in the past already and we know the enemies and we know how they react against Michael. I think this time they went too far, it was too much," he said. "Yesterday there was so much emotion and it was planned by our enemies in the paddock," Weber added. "They don't like him." Weber said Schumacher did not even know where Renault's defending world champion Fernando Alonso was on the track at the time of the incident. Schumacher's claims that he had simply made a mistake drew outraged reaction in the paddock. But Ferrari team boss Jean Todt issued a statement on Sunday rejecting the punishment. 'Great displeasure'"Ferrari notes with great displeasure the decision of the race stewards. We totally disagree with it. "Such a decision creates a very serious precedent, ruling out the possibility of driver error," the Frenchman said. "Michael was on his final timed lap and he was trying to put his first place beyond doubt, as could be seen from the fact that his first split time was the best and could have seen him do another very good lap. "With no real evidence, the stewards have assumed he is guilty." The decision was a blow to Schumacher's title hopes, with the 37-year-old 15 points adrift of Renault's Fernando Alonso in the championship. The Spaniard takes over the pole position on a track where overtaking is almost impossible.  'I have my opinion,' Alonso said after the incident. Race stewards had called Schumacher in to explain his driving but took eight hours to deliver their verdict. The two page document found that the 37-year-old German had broken the rules on a number of counts. "The stewards can find no justifiable reason for the driver to have braked with such undue, excessive and unusual pressure at this part of the circuit and are therefore left with no alternative but to conclude that the driver deliberately stopped his car on the circuit. "This is a breach of 2006 Formula One sporting regulations article 116 and hence a driving infringement," it said. "The stewards accordingly direct that the qualifying times of Michael Schumacher, the driver of car number five, be deleted. "The effect of this is that...the driver will start the race from the back of the grid." The decision means that Ferrari will now have both cars at the back after Schumacher's Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa crashed out in the first part of qualifying. 
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