IMO; yes. And may have also been the reason he "choked" and overshot his brake point letting MS retake him. A bit of self preservation. If MS had done the same to him, the Constructors Championship would be Ferrari's.
It would have been easy to take out MS if Fisi wanted too...but, all F1 drivers are not dirty cheats like MS has proven to be...
In view of the general atmosphere this season, I am even surprised that Ferrari didn't protest the move!
I've not seen as much furor over this as I expected, but then it's not like it were Massa's front wing contacting Alonso's rear tire... is it?
I just think its quite ironic how before the race everyone was concerned about Ferrari being cheats and deliberately taking out the Renaults. Yet at the end of the day, it was a Renault handicapping a Ferrari in the race. I won't say Fisi's move was deliberate, but I am sure he could have done more to prevent it.
Didn't MS say there was no contact and the tire failure was debris. They cleaned up the Rosburg crash with brooms.
The way they were racing it could have just as easily been Fisi with the blown tire. It was too random and intense to label as deliberate.
Well this was from autosport.com: Ferrari and Renault both agree that the minor collision between Giancarlo Fisichella and Michael Schumacher in the Brazilian Grand Prix was nothing more than a racing incident. Fisichella's front wing touched Schumacher's left rear wheel as they fought for position on the start of lap nine at Interlagos - causing the Ferrari to suffer a puncture and lose almost a lap as it returned to the pits. Although that incident almost certainly cost Ferrari a chance of securing a 1-2 finish,, both teams have played down suggestions that Fisichella deliberately caused the collision to help his own team's chances. Renault boss Flavio Briatore said: "Fisichella was defending his position normally. It is normal that something like this happens. And in the end Michael was flying so there was no problem at all." Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn added: "Well, it was unfortunate. I don't think it was a malicious accident, but it was an unfortunate accident and I wish it hadn't have happened."
And Massa collecting the flag on the cool down wasn't? I still can't believe the other teams lacked the balls to protest that. It was Schumacher's job to make a safe pass, not Fisi's job to make it easy for him. And had Schumacher not parked his car at Monaco he would have had some much needed points. Speed's tv's Varsha said it best, not in these words. Sometimes Scumacher was a real dumba$$.
Protesting the move would have accomplished nothing positive, and would have only placed a dark cloud on Schumacher's last race. It was simply a racing accident. Besides, Fisi knows if he had done it intentionally he would have been stoned by the Tifosi when he returned to his native Italy, and the Pope would never have listened to his future confessions.
Given the number of threads and posts from participants here these past couple of weeks debating over who should take Alonso out of the race, I am suprised at the whining over the thought that GF tried to take MS out of the race. I don't think for a second that Fisi tried to take out Schumacher but if you all are ready to win a title by taking your competition out of the race, then you shouldn't complain about losing a title that way either. I may be old-fashioned and anachronistic but I still like to see titles decided by drivers racing on the track cleanly, not demolition driving.
+1 Look at 86 when Prost beat Mansell to the championship, it was a heartbreaking loss for Mansell, but it was clean racing all year long.
good question, but you know the answer to that. he complains about everything little thing in public.