FIA President Max Mosley has attempted to diffuse the ongoing brouhaha following Michael Schumacher's relegation to the back of the grid for today's Monaco Grand Prix.

A number of websites and newspapers carry bold headlines, accusing the seven-time World Champion of cheating, an accusation refuted by Mosley.

"I wouldn't go as far as to say it was cheating," he told Reuters. "You've got to take the thing in its context, in the heat of the moment when you are desperately trying to get on the front row of the grid and you've got a split second to take a decision."

Referring to how race stewards came to their conclusion, which took almost eight hours, the Englishman said: "The stewards have the advantage of having every detail, every piece of information and being able to know on previous laps where he braked, where he steered, accelerated, how quick he was going and so on.

"Armed with all that information, they come to a conclusion," he continued. "It took them several hours, they went into great detail, it's how it should be done. That's sport.

"If you reach the conclusion that someone has done something that they shouldn't do, you've got to react. We've got to try and keep the playing field level. But these situations are always difficult."

With regards (Ferrari boss) Jean Todt's claim that the stewards had "no real evidence", Mosley said: "It doesn't really stand up when they had all the telemetry, all the television images, listened to Michael and whatever he wanted to say...

"I really don't think you could say they had no evidence," he added. "I'm sure they did their utmost to be fair and they are fair-minded people."