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Schumacher won his fourth world title in 2001
ploy to divert attention from his actions with Frentzen.
Two laps from the finish of the 1998 British Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher was leading the race when he was issued a stop-and-go penalty for overtaking a lapped car (Alexander Wurz) during the early moments of a Safety Car period. This penalty should have involved going into the pit lane and stopping for 10 seconds. But as the penalty was given with fewer than 2 laps remaining, and since it was issued as a handwritten note, the Ferrari team was confused as to whether the penalty was a stop and go penalty or merely a penalty of 10 seconds to be added to Schumacher's race time. The rules state that a driver must serve his penalty within three laps of the penalty being issued, and on the third lap after receiving the penalty, Schumacher turned into the pit lane to serve his penalty. However, this was the last lap of the race, and as Ferrari's pit box was located after the start/finish line, Schumacher technically finished the race before serving the penalty. The stewards initially resolved that problem by adding 10 seconds to Schumacher's race time, then later rescinded the penalty completely due to the irregularities in how the penalty had been issued.
In the same season, after a race-ending collision whilst trying to lap David Coulthard in heavy spray during the Belgian Grand Prix, Schumacher stormed into the McLaren garage and, as with the incident with Hill in Canada, accused Coulthard of trying to kill him. Television viewers saw an obviously furious
Schumacher shouting at Coulthard, while both McLaren and Ferrari team members attempted to restrain him and move him away from the McLaren garage. Coulthard recanted some 5 years later after an incident caused him to suffer a similar accident.
Minor controversy came at the 2000 Austrian Grand Prix where, after being hit at the first corner, Schumacher slowly moved his stricken car out of the gravel, and abandoned it on the racing line. Critics saw this as an (unsuccessful) attempt to force the race director to restart the race (2000 rules would have allowed him to take the restart in the spare car).
Although Schumacher took the pole position during the qualifying for the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, there was controversy near the end of the session. Schumacher stopped his car in the Rascasse