in an attempt to lap ralf schumacher, who was down in 11th position, alonso tried to pass him offline around the outside in the tunnel and crashed heavily. alonso was enraged by this incident, and publicly accused ralf of dangerous driving. the safety car was immediately deployed, and all of the front-runners (except michael schumacher and montoya) took the opportunity to pit. while following the safety car, schumacher locked his left front tyre in the tunnel in an apparent attempt to generate heat in his brake pads and discs ahead of the restart. montoya, directly behind, moved to the inside trying to avoid running into the back of schumacher. however, as schumacher continued there was no space between his car and the barrier for montoya's and he clipped montoya's left front tyre with his right rear, spun sideways and hit the barriers. this accident ended schumacher's hopes for a sixth consecutive victory and a perfect season. upon investigations, the stewards declined to apportion blame to either driver.