23/07/2011
NEWS STORY
Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi has had his time from today's qualifying session disallowed.
The penalty is in response to a fuel irregularity discovered when his car was examined in the official post qualifying inspection.
The stewards subsequently issued a statement which read: "The stewards, having received a report from the FIA Technical Delegate that the fuel sample taken after qualifying from Car 18 showed an increase in one given GC Peak Area of an absolute amount greater than 0.1 per cent for the component present at a concentration below 0.8 per cent, and having heard from the FIA Formula One Analytical Chemist and the Team Representatives and examined the fuel test graphs, determine this to be a breach of Article 19.8.3 of the 2011 FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and decide to impose a penalty of exclusion of Car 18 from the results of Qualifying."
In response to the penalty, the Faenza team issued the following: "During Friday's FP1, Buemi's car had a fuel pressure problem, which then got worse at the start of FP2 which is why he did not do a timed lap in that session. After FP2 the entire fuel system on his car was changed. When the fuel sample was taken from his car after qualifying, it did not match the one provided to the FIA prior to the start of the season. The team believes that some part of the new fuel system contained a chemical that contaminated the fuel and caused the non-conformity."
The Swiss driver, who qualified sixteenth, will start tomorrow's race from the back row of the grid.