Mercedes GP driver Michael Schumacher will not receive a penalty for his part in a controversial late-race incident with Ferrari's Felipe Massa, as the pair fought over ninth place in the closing stages of the Canadian Grand Prix.
Schumacher was running ninth when Massa challenged him as the cars entered the braking zone for the final chicane in the closing stages of Sunday's race.
But Schumacher seemed to sweep across the track, forcing Massa onto the grass and damaging the Ferrari's front wing.
Massa was forced to pit for a new nose cone, while Schumacher, already struggling with tyre issues, eventually finished 11th after the two Force India cars fought past him on the final lap.
But although the incident was referred to the stewards in Montreal, no action will be taken against the seven-time world champion.
Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn defended Schumacher after the incident, insisting that it had not been a deliberately malicious move on Schumacher's part.
"Michael didn't have a lot of grip, he was on tyres that were very badly grained, so I'm not aware of anything unusual that happened," Brawn muttered.
"It might be true that he braked much earlier than Felipe was expecting, but that was the point at which Michael, with the tyres he had, had to brake. I don't think there was any malice in what happened."
Massa's race engineer Rob Smedley refused to talk up the incident, telling the BBC that: "I think that Michael had to possibly brake a little bit early as his tyres were not great - much earlier than Felipe was expecting and he drove into the back of him."
Schumacher's promising start to the race had earlier been ruined when he became involved in another incident, tangling with Renault's Robert Kubica and picking up a puncture which necessitated another pit stop.
"It was a shame because he got out in front of Kubica, and was looking OK," Brawn mused on the Kubica incident, "But we could see from the data he had a right front puncture and it was correct, because when we called the car in there was a slash on the tyre.
"Because of the puncture we got out of phase with the tyres, and we took a chance on whether the option [softer] tyre would last, and obviously it didn't."
The 11th placed finish capped off the worst weekend for Schumacher since his return to the sport at the start of 2010. He had earlier qualified down in 13th place.
Although no action was taken against Schumacher, both of the drivers he tangled with picked up reprimands or penalties for separate incidents. Kubica was reprimanded when he was deemed to have driven dangerously when entering the pits while scrapping with Adrian Sutil, while Massa picked up a 20 second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari also picked up a post-race reprimand from the stewards for an incident involving the Williams of Rubens Barrichello.
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