By Jamie Makin
October 9 2005

After a dramatic first-lap clash between Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Pablo Montoya that shunted the Colombian's McLaren-Mercedes out of the race, the stewards have hit Jacques Villeneuve with a 25 second penalty.

The FIA report stated:

"After the race the stewards viewed the video of the incident and presented the same to Juan Pablo Montoya and his team manager Dave Ryan and independently to Jacques Villeneuve and his team manager Beat Zehnder.

"Having heard both parties the stewards independently conclude that Jacques Villeneuve was involved in an incident 'forcing the driver of Car number 10 off track' and therefore impose a 25-second time penalty to the elapsed race time of Jacques Villeneuve."

The penalty drops Villeneuve from 11th place to 12th place. Although there's no real consequence in terms of the points or standings, it does mean he will have to go out one car earlier for qualifying in Shanghai next weekend.

As usual, both drivers have blamed each other for the mishap. "He missed the chicane and then he just started to go wider and wider and wider until he pushed me off the circuit," fumed Montoya.

"I was 100 percent beside him and he just pushed me and pushed me until I was in the grass," he added. "We probably could have had a one-two today which would have been fantastic for the team."

The fiery Colombian had no plans to confront the Canadian. "No, I've got better things to do in life," Montoya said.

"I never even saw him so I have no idea what he might have been trying to do when he went off," claimed Villeneuve, who is driving for his career now in hopes that BMW will honour his contract for next season.