Montoya angry at US disqualification

Juan Pablo Montoya has slammed race stewards at the United States Grand Prix following his latest disqualification.

A week after Montoya and Williams team-mate Ralf Schumacher had their fifth and second-placed finishes at the Canadian Grand Prix declared void due to their cars sporting illegal air ducts, the Colombian was again in the spotlight.

Montoya raced in the spare car on Sunday after his main race car failed to start just seconds before the grid were ready to lead off on their formation lap.

But the stewards black flagged Montoya after 57 laps of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track as they deemed he had not left the grid within the required 15 seconds of the start.

The stewards have subsequently been criticised for the length of time it took them to deliver their verdict, although they have cited mitigating circumstances in that there were three race accidents.

Nevertheless, Montoya was bitter, adding to the woes of the Williams team following Schumacher’s horror smash, although the German was discharged from hospital yesterday morning after an overnight stay after sustaining nothing more than a sore back and bruising.

But an angry Montoya said: “Ask them [the stewards] what would have happened if I had crashed like Ralf.

“It could have been me sitting in a hospital instead.”

It has been a miserable season for Montoya, a championship challenger last year and who next year will be racing for McLaren, but he refuses to get downhearted and remains fully motivated.

“I do racing because I love it,” asserted Montoya.

“It is not like a job and you get a rubbish assignment and you say, ‘I don’t want to do that assignment'. This is different. You do it because you enjoy it.

“I think about how we can improve the car sometimes, but apart from that, I can’t do anything to make the car go quicker.

“I am doing my bit driving the car. They [the team] need to do their bit with the car.”