06/10/2013
NEWS STORY
A number of drivers went before the stewards following today's Korean Grand Prix.
Sergio Perez was up on two charges, the first for making contact with Massa in T6 and the second for forcing Paul di Resta off track as the Scot attempted to pass him in T4. In both cases, as no driver was determined to be wholly or predominantly to blame, it was decided that no further action should be taken.
Similarly, no further action was taken against Adrian Sutil or Giedo Van der Garde. The German was investigated following his clash with Mark Webber, the incident that brought the Red Bull driver's race to a fiery end.
The Stewards noted that Sutil did not brake later than the drivers around him when his brakes locked causing him to lose control.
Van der Garde went before the stewards for setting a green sector time under yellow flags however, the stewards were satisfied, from a study of his telemetry, that the Dutch driver did slow on entering the yellow flag area.
However, Van der Garde, like Max Chilton, did get a reprimand for not staying above the minimum time set by the FIA ECU, a breach of Article 40.7 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, while there were reprimands also for Bianchi and Pic for failing to slow for yellow flags, a breach of Appendix L Chapter IV, Article 1 and Appendix H, Article 2.4.5.1 (b) of the FIA International Sporting Code. Indeed, the Caterham driver was actually 2kph faster going into the yellow flag area on Lap 53.
Since these were the third reprimands for both drivers, both take 10-place grid penalties to Japan. That said, since both drivers' average grid position over the course of the season is 19.64, neither will be too badly affected.
Check out our Sunday gallery, here.