Unfair to call Schumacher a cheat, says Mosley

MONACO, May 28 (Reuters) Michael Schumacher should not be branded a cheat for the incident that stripped him of pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix, the head of Formula One's governing body said today.

''I wouldn't go as far as to say it was cheating,'' International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley told Reuters.

''You've got to take the thing in its context, in the heat of the moment when you are desperately trying to get on the front row of the grid and you've got a split second to take a decision.'' Race stewards ruled yesterday that Ferrari's seven times champion deliberately stopped at the slow penultimate corner of the track in the dying seconds of qualifying to prevent rivals from beating his time.

The decision to send Schumacher to the back of the field angered the driver and his team but Mosley defended the FIA-appointed stewards.

''The stewards have the advantage of having every detail, every piece of information and being able to know on previous laps where he braked, where he steered, accelerated, how quick he was going and so on,'' he said.

''Armed with all that information, they come to a conclusion.

''It took them several hours, they went into great detail, it's how it should be done. That's sport.

''If you reach the conclusion that someone has done something that they shouldn't do, you've got to react. We've got to try and keep the playing field level. But these situations are always difficult,'' said Mosley.

REUTERS PG PM1548