Montoya punished with back of grid start.

The Monaco stewards have sided with David Coulthard and the other drivers caught up in Saturday morning's practice shunt by blaming Juan Montoya for the incident and sending the Colombian to the back of the race grid as a result.

The stewards announced their decision after the first of the weekend's two qualifying sessions, in which Montoya took the fifth fastest time behind McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, confirming that neither team or driver would have the right of appeal.

"As Montoya's progress was impeded in a minor manner, he braked and took exception to his lap being disturbed and subsequently drove unnecessarily slowly in a very fast part of the track," Reuters quoted from the stewards statement, "The result was that Jacques Villeneuve, who was also on a fast lap, was unable to stop and hit the rear of David Coulthard's car, which then went into Ralf Schumacher's."

Coulthard was particularly vehement in his condemnation of Montoya, who he claimed had brake-tested Schumacher. That, according to the Scot, forced him to swerve his Red Bull car around the Toyota, with Villeneuve left with nowhere to go. The stewards confirmed that Montoya had slowed nearly 200 metres short of his usual braking point, and then proceeded to drive slowly up the hill from Ste Devote.