Merc teammates side with Schu over Alonso move
After deliberating for four hours in Monaco, the stewards on Sunday evening decided to drop the German out of the points, even though team boss Ross Brawn insists the safety car period had officially ended.
Nico Rosberg thought Schumacher's pass had been a good one.
"From my perspective it was a really cool maneuver," he told German television RTL, "but apparently it's not allowed."
Interestingly, Rosberg revealed that he was also told by the Mercedes pitwall that overtaking between the safety car line and the checkered flag was allowed.
And Mercedes reserve driver Nick Heidfeld told Sky television: "The move was very clean.
"The rules are different this year. In the past you could only overtake from the start/finish line, now it is from the safety car line. Alonso was a little bit asleep," added the German.
"My race would have been pretty normal without the decision of the stewards afterwards," Schumacher said.
"The result in the very end, which put me back to twelfth place for now, was obviously disappointing for me and I can fully understand that we are appealing the decision.
"Our understanding was that the 'safety car in, track clear' message meant we were back to racing conditions, so I went for it and overtook Fernando."