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WORLD SPORT

Rivals in uproar after qualifying

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Villeneuve was scathing in his crictism of Schumacher.

MONACO -- Michael Schumacher's rivals slammed the Ferrari driver after his controversial pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday.

The most glamorous race of the Formula One season was buffeted by a storm of outrage after the German stopped at the penultimate corner in the dying seconds.

Stewards eventually relegated Schumacher to last place on the grid.

His action had prevented others still to complete fast laps from beating his time.

The seven times champion said he made a mistake, but others doubted the most experienced and successful racer on the track, a man chasing a record-equaling sixth Monaco win on Sunday.

"I hope it was deliberate, because if that was a mistake he should not even have an F1 superlicence," 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve told reporters

"If you can make a mistake like that, you shouldn't drive a race car. There's no way you could make a mistake like that," added the Canadian, who won his title after a notorious clash with Schumacher.

"It's the kind of thing I couldn't dream of doing myself," said Villeneuve.

"I don't know what goes through your mind when you decide to do that, when you know that the rest of the world can see. I don't understand it, it's stupid.

"He didn't need to do that, he's a seven times world champion, he was on pole position. Why do that? It's only going to make him look bad."

"This is embarrassing. Embarrassing for a world champion. It would even be embarrassing for (Japan's Yuji) Ide," said the Canadian, referring to the Super Aguri driver who had his licence taken away earlier in the season.

Sleep soundly

Australian Mark Webber, who drives for Williams and qualified third, questioned whether Schumacher would sleep soundly on Saturday night.

"Obviously, if it is intentional it is childish, isn't it? It looks a bit tricky to be honest," he said.

"I just feel you don't have to do this stuff. Why does it always have to happen? It's like Mike Tyson biting someone's ear off, isn't it?

"If it's deliberate it's absolutely rubbish. It's massively below the belt and if that's the case he should definitely lose all his qualifying," added Webber.

Both McLaren drivers, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya, doubted there had been any mistake.

"Was it really a mistake?" said Colombian Montoya, Monaco winner in 2003 with Williams. "I'm not so sure."

"I don't believe that he really had any problems," added Finland's Raikkonen, race winner last year.

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