As he nuzzled up to the Monte Carlo barriers, the seconds ticking down to the end of qualifying, one thing was clear: Schumacher and controversy were about to become bedfellows once again.

The German held provisional pole position, but was far from safe - Renault's Fernando Alonso, the upstart who had taken three wins and three second places to seize an early championship lead, was just 0.064s down the road after the pair's first runs. What's more, Alonso was going significantly faster on his final run.

Schumacher, ahead on the road, hadn't found the same gains through the first two sectors of his own run. As he approached the penultimate section, pole - a vital tool on the streets of Monte Carlo - was therefore slipping from his grasp.

Except that Alonso never got to complete his lap. Schumacher got it all wrong at Rascasse, locking his front right tyre, clumsily veering off line and then parking across the exit of the right hander, a final twist of the steering wheel keeping his Ferrari out of the barriers.

The yellow flags flew, and the rest of the field were denied their final laps: Schumacher would be on pole. But that was only the start of the story.

Schumacher defended the incident in a deliciously awkward press conference, saying that his final lap had been "unfortunately just a touch too much" and that he hadn't been aware of where he would end up. Alonso, meanwhile, insisted pole would have been his, but chose not to be drawn on commenting further.