Liuzzi accepts penalty, but doesn't agree

Tonio Liuzzi has said will accept the five-place grid penalty awarded by stewards at Monza following the first corner incident that put three cars out of the Italian Grand Prix but insists that he doesn't agree with the decision.

The Hispania driver went off onto the grass going into turn one on the opening lap and then took both Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov out of the race, while a number of other drivers were also delayed before the Safety Car was deployed.

Following the race, stewards elected to hand Liuzzi a five-place grid drop on the grid for the Singapore event and although he accepted the decision, the Italian said he didn't agree with the call.

"I came away with a five-place grid penalty for Singapore and I accepted that, but it doesn't mean I agree with the decision of the stewards," he wrote in his column for ESPN. "They said that I caused the accident at the chicane, but this is not what happened out there. I'm not going to reject the stewards' decision, and at the end of the day it doesn't change much for us in Singapore, but that doesn't mean I agree with it - I know it wasn't my fault.

"The accident at turn one was a real shame because, even though we were starting from last position, we had an amazing start and got past Daniel, both Virgins and we were going faster than the Lotus of Kovalainen. I went to his inside because there was a lot of space, but when I was side-by-side he basically pushed me to the right and pushed me onto the grass. It was a bad combination of him veering to the right and the track narrowing with the start of the grass and I found myself with nowhere to go.

"Once I was on the grass I completely lost control of the car because we were nearing the braking zone and I couldn't slow down properly. Once the car was on the grass there was no stopping it and I ended up crashing into Petrov and Rosberg. I'm really sorry for them because they were just passengers in this sequence, but it wasn't my fault."