A textual explanation for the confused:
two laps from the finish, Schumacher was issued with a stop-and-go penalty for passing Alexander Wurz under the safety car on lap 43. He had to come in to the pits within three laps to serve his penalty, which he did by entering the pit lane on the final lap of the race, but in doing so he crossed the finish line, which extends across the pit lane, before reaching his pit box, and won the race possibly without having served his penalty. His team argued that the penalty should have been issued within 25 minutes of the incident but instead they were informed after 31 minutes. They also argued that the hand-written notification was unclear as to which penalty was actually being issued: a stop-and-go, or a 10-second addition to Schumacher's race time. The stewards then decided to apply the 10-second addition, post-race. However, the added time penalty can only be used to punish an infraction in the last 12 laps of a Grand Prix, and so did not apply here. The stewards eventually rescinded the penalty altogether.[3] A protest was lodged by McLaren-Mercedes who felt Ferrari cheated by not having Schumacher serve the penalty, but this was rejected by the FIA.
As a result, the three stewards involved handed in their licenses at an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Council.
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