MICHAEL Schumacher has been dramatically stripped of pole position and placed last on the grid for tonight's (AEST) Monaco Formula One Grand Prix.
FIA, motor racing's governing body, punished the seven-time champion after finding him guilty of "deliberately stopping his car in the middle of the track".
Earlier, Schumacher denied he had "cheated" by deliberately stalling his car and blocking the track after claiming pole.
The 37-year-old seven-time drivers's world champion faced a barrage of accusations from fellow drivers, rivals and the media.
But his message was clear. "No, I didn't cheat ? and I think it is pretty tough to be asked if I did."
Instead, he said he had simply "pushed too hard" in pursuit of an improved time on his final run in the final seconds of an incident-filled qualifying hour, which saw his Ferrari teammate, Brazil's Felipe Massa, crash out of contention after only seven minutes.
"I locked up the front and went wide," he said.
"I wasn't sure what was going on after this because of the positioning of the cars and so on, so I was not aware and in the end, I checked with the guys what the situation was, where did we end up, because I didn't expect to be sitting here right now in this position ? and they said P1. So, I was glad considering what had happened."
Schumacher said he had attempted to find reverse, when he realised his car was stranded on the racing line of the circuit, but the gear did not engage.
"I didn't really want to back up just by myself without knowing what was coming around the corner and finally, it stalled," he said.
The incident meant that his Ferrari car ended up stranded on the outside of the key Rascasse hairpin and prevented his greatest rival, defending world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso in a Renault, from clocking an improved lap time for pole.
Alonso, stony-faced after the session, was clearly livid and like most paddock observers could hardly believe that Schumacher had deliberately stopped on the track to gain an advantage in that way.
Schumacher had dominated much of the session in a bid to secure his record 67th pole position, but was afterwards accused of pre-meditated subterfuge ? and not for the first time in his long and often controversial career.
Flavio Briatore, his former Benetton team chief who is now boss at Renault, was one of the most disgusted observers as Schumacher parked his car, causing yellow flags to be waved warning oncoming drivers of danger ahead.
He aaid: "I think he is taking everyone for a ride. Someone who was seven times a world champion wants us to believe that he didn't do it on purpose. It's fairyland.
"And given that we are not Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, I think that what he did was unsporting and against everything
"It's really astonishing what he did. Incredible. It looked deliberate, and everybody is saying it, not just me. It wasn't like he hit the barriers. He just parked the car. I can't believe it. I don't know why he needed to do it ? that's the way Ferrari manage."
Alonso, 24, who will line up alongside Schumacher on the front row of the grid for tonight's race, said: "For sure, I'd have been on pole if I did not see the yellow flags. I was three-tenths (of a second) up on the lap until then. I am not going to give my true opinion on the matter here though. It is not the right place or time."
Schumacher has often courted controversy in his 15-years career in F1, most famously when he crashed into Briton Damon Hill in the decisive season-ending 1994 Australian Grand Prix to win his first drivers' title.
In 1997, after leaving Benetton to join Ferrari, he collided with Canada's Jacques Villeneuve in a bid to win the drivers's title, but ended up handing his rival the crown and being disqualified, stripped of his runners-up place in the title race and disgraced again.
Villeneuve, 35, who now drives for the BMW Sauber team, said: "You cannot win seven world championships and do that. It is unacceptable. It shows that every time in the past that he has done something like that and people have given him the benefit of the doubt ? that makes it obvious."
Schumacher hit back at his critics. He challenged his doubters to drive a lap of the Monaco track and see for themselves just how narrow and difficult the street circuit is to drive a racing car at maximum speed.
"Whatever you do in certain moments, your enemies believe one thing and the people who support you believe another," he added. "Some people may not believe it, but unfortunately that's the world we live in."
Schumacher ended up on pole ahead of Alonso with Australia's Mark Webber third in a Williams and Finn Kimi Raikkonen fourth for McLaren.
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