Schumacher will drop 10 places on the grid at Suzuka

After an initial intervention by the safety car following Narain Karthikeyan’s exit, the Singapore Grand Prix was once again neutralized due to the collision between Jean-Eric Vergne and Michael Schumacher at the braking of turn 14. The German driver, with all wheels locked, failed to stop his car, which consequently collided with the Frenchman’s Toro Rosso, ending their race and potential point-scoring opportunity. An incident for which the stewards deemed it necessary to open an investigation, which was conducted after the race concluded.

In his post-race statements, the seven-time World Champion was not able to precisely determine the cause of the collision: “I’m not certain of the reason why this happened; I braked but the deceleration wasn’t as strong as usual, and I couldn’t avoid the car in front of me.” One might indeed suspect a brake issue, caused by poor temperature management during the first neutralization.

But it apparently was not the case, since the commissioners found Michael Schumacher guilty of the accident and imposed a 10-place penalty on the starting grid for the Japanese Grand Prix, which will take place in two weeks in Suzuka. The decision specifies that the driver admitted the collision was his error, caused by a lack of anticipation of the car’s braking performance with the loss of grip that followed the safety car period. The penalty takes into account the fact that this is the driver’s second similar mistake this season.

Indeed, the Mercedes driver had already been penalized for a similar collision with Bruno Senna during the Spanish Grand Prix, but he had only received a 5-place grid penalty, which had also deprived him of pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix.