Alonso and Hamilton receive time penalties

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were both slapped with 20-second penalties following Sunday's Malaysian GP

The two antagonists were involved in a tense battle for third place at Sepang on Sunday with Hamilton leading Alonso as the Spaniard attempted to find a way past.

However, instead of passing Hamilton, he drove into the back of him, damaging the front wing of his Ferrari.

Alonso was forced to pit for a new nose and dropped down to sixth place while Hamilton, who had to come in for a late pit stop, finished the grand prix in seventh place.

The duo, though, were called into the stewards' office in the aftermath of the grand prix where both were handed 20-second penalties.

Alonso's was for the crash while Hamilton's was because the stewards deemed him to have been too aggressive in defending his position against the double World Champ.

Hamilton, though, is the only one who suffers as a result of the penalty as he dropped from seventh to eighth in the final classification. Alonso remains sixth.

Revised Results

01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h37:39.832
02. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 3.261
03. Heidfeld Renault + 25.075
04. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 26.384
05. Massa Ferrari + 36.958
06. Alonso Ferrari + 57.248
07. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:07.239
08. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 69.957
09. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:24.896
10. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:31.563
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:45.000
12. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
14. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
16. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
17. Petrov Renault + 4 laps

Source: Planet-F1

Lewis Hamilton Q&A: Penalty was fair

Despite a McLaren not as quick as the Red Bull and a drive-through penalty for passing the safety car, Lewis Hamilton still managed to bag second place in Valencia, much to the disgust of former team mate Fernando Alonso. Hamilton, who retained his lead in the driver standings, felt his penalty was fair and is now looking forward to an upgraded MP4-25 for his home race in two weeks’ time…

Q: Lewis, finishing the race in second place - was that the result you had expected?
Lewis Hamilton: Well, to be honest I was thinking of first place, and if I had not had the safety car issue I would have been up to pressuring Sebastian the whole way. And hopefully he would have had to back off due to reliability issues - that would have been my chance. It did not happen for him.

Q: At the beginning you were talking on the team radio about vibrations on your car. Tell us about the contact with Vettel at the start and what was going on in your mind in those moments. It could have been game over for you…
LH: Yes, I had a little contact with Sebastian in the first corner. I went for the move and he closed the gap as much as he could. Unfortunately I was going direct towards the kerbs - I hit the kerbs and was pushed down and we touched. Fortunately it didn’t hamper him, but I did damage my front wing and had huge understeer. But I messed around with the controls and put the wing up as much as I could. I still had massive understeer but was able to hold the pace and when the safety car came out I came into the pits and was able to change the front wing and the tyres. It was probably one of our best pit stops - and I needed a good pit stop. From that moment on it was really difficult to overtake. Even the backmarkers are hard to overtake.

Q: Fernando Alonso seemed devastated on the team radio that you hadn’t been given a bigger penalty for passing the safety car and you hadn’t dropped down further - and that this situation ruined his own race. Obviously the penalty didn’t harm your position at all and you probably think this was fair. Had it been the other way around, would you still have thought it fair?
LH: That is good to know. Well, it is all down to the point that you do the job that you have to do. I was told that I had to pit, I made the gap and pushed as hard as I could and pulled out some of the fastest laps and I was able to increase the gap from the guys behind - and I did my penalty: A drive-through is quite a long time - moving down the pit lane at 60km/h - and I came out still ahead of the others, so I don’t think that this is unfair. This is racing and these are the rules.

Q: Fernando obviously said that this race was manipulated. What do you think about this?
LH: Ah, I think he is probably reacting emotionally…

Q: When you did those really fast laps trying to win back time did you notice that there was a glass bottle on the track? How was it for you to be concentrating on super fast laps knowing that there was something on the track?
LH: You always keep your eyes on the track and I saw it there in the middle of the road, thinking that if you hit that bottle at that speed there are all kind of things that could happen. It could have broken my wing, it could have hit my tyre, it could have spat me off into the wall, I could have hit it and it would have been propelled towards the guy behind me - just as we have seen last year in Hungary with Felipe (Massa). So this was really quite dangerous.

Q: Red Bull brought an upgrade here so you knew that they were quick. But would you have guessed that without arriving here with new parts, McLaren would be able to finish second and third?
LH: Definitely not. We would have never expected to be so competitive this weekend. The car was great and I am looking forward to the upcoming upgrades- and I truly hope that it will be a step forward so hopefully we are heading for a home Grand Prix stronger than we have been here.

Q: Speaking of your home Grand Prix, you are heading for Silverstone as the championship leader. That must be a huge boost…
LH: Yes, it definitely is. And it is good to be leading in both championships and I hope that we will be able to give the British fans a good race weekend.

Source: Formula1.com

Schumi insists: We were back to racing

Michael Schumacher has defended his passing move on Fernando Alonso in Sunday's Monaco GP, insisting "we were back to racing conditions."


With the Safety Car coming in on the very last lap of the Monte Carlo race in order to allow Mark Webber to take the chequered flag, the message 'Safety Car in, track clear' was displayed and the green flags were waved. Schumacher took advantage of a somewhat sedate Alonso, passing him at the final corner to take sixth place.

However, the German's move was immediately called into question by the stewards, who after three hours of deliberation ruled that it was illegal based on Article 40.13, which states that "if the race ends whilst the Safety Car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking."

Schumacher was handed a 20-second penalty, which saw him drop out of the points and down into 12th place.

Mercedes GP are appealing the decision, a move that Schumacher agrees with as he firmly believes that the message of 'track clear' meant he was allowed to race in the metres between the Safety Car line and the finish line.

"My race would have been pretty normal without the decision of the stewards afterwards," he said.

"The result in the very end, which put me back to twelfth place for now, was obviously disappointing for me and I can fully understand that we are appealing the decision.

"Our understanding was that the 'safety car in, track clear' message meant we were back to racing conditions, so I went for it and overtook Fernando."

Team boss Ross Brawn added that in his opinion racing was allowed because the grand prix was not finishing behind the Safety Car, which meant Article 40.13 was not valid.

"With regard to the penalty given to Michael, we believed that the track had gone green and the race was not finishing under a Safety Car when article 40.13 clearly would have applied.

"The reason for the Safety Car had been removed, the FIA had announced 'Safety Car in this lap' early on lap 78 and the track had been declared clear by race control. This was further endorsed when the marshals showed green flags and lights after safety car line one.."

Meanwhile, Damon Hill, an old time nemesis of Schumacher's who took the role of drivers' representative for the race, insists he made the right call, denying claims that it was a bit of revenge for their 1994 collision.

Hill told BBC Sport: "Believe me my only concern was that the right thing was done, if that was the case consistently things would be better.

"But there was a wry smile from Michael. Slightly ironic you could say."

Source: Planet F1

5-place grid drop for Chandhok

Hispania's Karun Chandhok has been handed a 5-place grid drop ahead of qualifying in Barcelona this afternoon.

Drivers are required to run the same gearbox for four full race weekends - in order to keep costs to a minimum - although Indian Chandhok receives the penalty following a change at the Circuit de Catalunya after Friday practice.

However, as Hispania are almost certain to be eliminated from Q1 in normal circumstances, the Murcia-based team effectively receives no disadvantage in comparison to its current expected pace.

Source: GP Update