JV claims innocence JPM's crash
Jacques Villeneuve, the Canadian Sauber driver, has called out his innocence after being found guilty by the Japanese GP stewards for Juan Pablo Montoya's accident in Suzuka. Montoya crashed out on the first lap of the race and, after investigation, Villeneuve was given a 25-second penalty for his part in Montoya's slide.
A FIA statement said: "Having heard both parties the stewards independently conclude that Jacques Villeneuve was involved in an incident 'forcing the driver of Car number 10 off track' and therefore impose a 25-second time penalty to the elapsed race time of Jacques Villeneuve."
Almost a week after the incident, Villeneuve keeps repeating that he wasn't responsible.
Jacques Villeneuve "I was a bit surprised when I saw Juan Pablo in the wall. When you’re racing and you go through a corner, you only leave room if the guy’s next to you. If the person is still behind you just take your line and you expect the other person to lift, because he hasn’t won the corner. That’s all. I was concentrating on the straight line and once I got on the straight, I looked in the mirrors to see where he was and I saw him in the wall so I was a bit surprised. I guess Juan Pablo judged that he would be next to me by the time we got to the exit…".
While Juan Pablo claimed to have been aside of Jacques, the Canadian is sure he wasn't as he did not see any front wheel aside of his before the chicane. When asked about the decision of the stewards he was a little agitated as to what punishmet was imposed to him.
Jacques Villeneuve "I spent all my career always accepting blame when I’ve done something wrong and this time I won’t accept blame and I find it very, very disappointing because the next step is when someone tried to overtake you, you just lift in the middle of a straight line and let him by. I find that a little bit dangerous, mostly when you see that some drivers will put another one on the grass in the middle of a straight line and there’s no punishment for that. So I find that a little bit difficult to accept."
