Heidfeld hit by three-place penalty - revised provisional grid 18 Oct 2008
BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld will drop three places on the Shanghai grid as penalty for impeding Red Bull’s David Coulthard during qualifying.
Heidfeld dived past Coulthard late in Q1 as both were battling to make it through to Q2. Coulthard claimed he was slowed as a result, causing him to narrowly miss the cut, and after examining the incident the stewards agreed.
Heidfeld drops from sixth to ninth, with Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and the second Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais all moving up a place as a result.
Following Heidfeld’s penalty and Mark Webber’s 10-place drop for his Red Bull's engine change, the provisional grid now looks as follows:
1 Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
2 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
3 Felipe Massa, Ferrari
4 Fernando Alonso, Renault
5 Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren
6 Sebastian Vettel, Toro Rosso
7 Jarno Trulli, Toyota
8 Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso
9 Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber
10 Nelson Piquet, Renault
11 Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber
12 Timo Glock, Toyota
13 Rubens Barrichello, Honda
14 Nico Rosberg, Williams
15 David Coulthard, Red Bull
16 Mark Webber, Red Bull
17 Kazuki Nakajima, Williams
18 Jenson Button, Honda
19 Adrian Sutil, Force India
20 Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India
