18/10/2009
NEWS STORY
Race Stewards at Interlagos were kept busy following today's Brazilian Grand Prix as a result of a number of incidents during the race.
First off they investigated a first lap incident involving Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella. However, after hearing the explanation of both the competitors representatives and the drivers they decided that the incident required no further action.
Next up were Jarno Trulli and Adrian Sutil who were both involved in another incident on the first lap.
The Stewards met with the two drivers and their team representatives, considered the video evidence and the telemetry data and eventually concluded that this too was a racing incident and no further action was required.
However the Stewards considered the behaviour of Jarno Trulli following the incident in failing to leave the track as required by the marshals and aggressively confronting Sutil. The Stewards considered this to be a breach of Article 151 (c) of the 2009 FIA International Sporting Code and subsequently hit the Italian with a reprimand - his second of the weekend - and a $10,000 fine.
The most serious incident of the day occurred at the end of the first lap, when Heikki Kovalainen was released too early from his pit and consequently headed off down the pitlane with his fuel hose still attached subsequently causing a brief fire which momentarily engulfed Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.
The Stewards having received a report from the Race Director of the unsafe release by McLaren met with the Woking outfit's team manager and considered the film evidence. The Stewards also met with the Ferrari team manager as Raikkonen was directly affected by the release and considered the telemetry data for his car.
The Stewards concluded that this was an unsafe release from the pit stop which also seriously impeded Raikkonen constituting a breach of Article 23.1 of the 2009 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
Consequently, McLaren were fined $50,000 and Heikki Kovalainen given a drive through penalty. However, since this is was given after the conclusion of the race 25 seconds was added to Finn's the elapsed race time, thereby demoting him to 12th place.