18/10/2008
NEWS STORY
Nick Heidfeld has been handed a three-place penalty following an incident involving David Coulthard in the first phase of today's qualifying session.
Having viewed video evidence and spoken to both drivers, the stewards adjudged the German to have impeded the Scot, a breach of Article 31.7 of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Sporting Regulations.
Ahead of the penultimate race of his F1 career, Coulthard could barely contain his anger, in the Red Bull post-qualifying press release he said: "I'm extremely disappointed with what Nick Heidfeld did on the last out lap. All the cars were bunching up on the second to last corner, as they jostled for position, but Nick suddenly passed me on the inside into the last corner, just as I was about to start my flying lap.
"It was very unlikely he was going to do a better lap on prime tyres and he was on the dirty side of the track," the Scot continued, "so he wouldn't have done a faster lap by squeezing through the inside at that point - and he came in before the end of that lap anyway! He would have known he was in the top ten already, so for me it was very un-sportsman like behaviour, as all he did was screw up my last flying lap - there wasn't any intention of him doing a quicker time."
However, speaking to reporters only moments after the incident he was even more forthcoming saying that this sort of behaviour is what he's come to expect from Heidfeld.
While the German feels he didn't do anything wrong, the stewards clearly think otherwise.