25/04/2009
NEWS STORY
As expected, Force India's Adrian Sutil has been penalised for an incident in the first phase of today's qualifying session. The German was seen to drift wide into the path of Red Bull driver Mark Webber who was on a flying lap.
"I had traffic on the last corner and therefore wasn't quick enough to go through," said Webber at the end of the session. "I don't usually get caught out with that problem and that was the worst place to get nailed, as it wrecked both my flying laps.
"I had nowhere to go in the last corner of my first lap and then Sutil slip-streamed past me for the start of my second, so it was a disaster. Q1 is the worst session to have had that problem, as now we're at the back for tomorrow - my race is screwed."
"There was a little problem with Mark Webber in the last corner," admitted Sutil, "I was just trying to make a gap to Alonso to start my lap and Mark came in on a flying lap, but I didn't know that. I just tried to stay in my position to get a clear start to the lap.
"It was a misunderstanding and I apologised to Mark after the end of the session," he added.
Nonetheless, the Race Stewards, having heard from the Race Director, considered Sutil to have unnecessarily to have impeded the Australian, a breach of Article 31.7 of the 2009 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, and handed the German a three-place grid penalty.