Monte Carlo, playground of the rich and famous, the bold and the beautiful. To many, one of the most glamorous places on earth… to others a monument to vulgarity.

With the 'business' of the race out of the way, most of the many thousands of visitors to the Principality were able to resume the partying, or in the case of F1's (many) wheelers and dealers, securing the deals that would fund their team's 2007 championship hopes.

For one man however, there was to be no Champagne, no party… no escape.

It was standing room only at the Ferrari post-race media de-brief, the place was heaving as journalists gathered to hear the Italian team's explanation of the events of the past twenty-four hours.

Not for nothing is Jean Todt often referred to as Napoleon. Other than the stature, the other obvious similarity is that the Frenchman doesn't shy away from confrontation.

Outside the parties got underway, while Christian Horner was leaping into the Red Bull swimming pool, Jean Todt was entering the lion's den.

"Can you summarise this weekend for us?" asked a journalist, getting the session underway.

After a short pause, and an obvious sigh, Todt responded: "It's definitely been a disappointing and frustrating weekend," he admitted, "mainly when you have a winning potential and when you finish fifth and ninth with cars.

"If there is a Grand Prix where you have to be in a good position at the start it is Monte Carlo," he continued, "so of course it is not very pleasing to have one car starting from the pit lane and the other car starting from the last position on the grid.

"Saying that, there are explanations for all that. Felipe made a mistake in Q1, and if you make a mistake in this context, that's the price you have to pay.

"It was different for Michael," he added, a cue for the assembled journos to lean forward, as one. "Michael was on pole until he lost the car in the last corner and then the stewards decided, after eight hours of discussions, that he was due to leave from the back of the grid.

"I know, as I said to your colleagues before, it was a big strong wind outside of the team, amongst the Formula One world, about Michael, stating that he did that on purpose so we have tried to demonstrate the evidence that it was a racing incident and it was not considered. So we did not have any other option considering that we did not have the possibility to appeal, either, so we did not have any other option but to accept it and to try to get the best out of the situation.

"I would say that the more encouraging thing, the more rewarding thing, is that we confirmed that the car is very competitive. It was confirmed that the tyres supplied by Bridgestone were very competitive and we could see that on other teams using Bridgestone tyres. So it remains the possibility of doing very well for the end of the championship and it's what we will try to do."

Todt is asked what Ferrari will do about the penalty, even though there is no right of appeal. Will Ferrari simply draw a line under the matter and move on?

"There's nothing we can do," says the Frenchman. "The weekend is over, there is no right of appeal, so we just have to move forwards."