Karthikeyan penalised for impeding Schumacher 29 Oct 2011
HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan has been handed a five-place grid penalty by the Indian stewards for impeding Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher during Saturday’s qualifying session for the New Delhi race.
After reviewing the evidence, the stewards decided Karthikeyan had blocked Schumacher during Q1. Despite the incident, the German managed to make it through to Q2 and eventually qualified in 12th. Karthikeyan, meanwhile, qualified in 21st.
Four other drivers - McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, Sauber’s Sergio Perez, Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and HRT’s Daniel Ricciardo - also have grid penalties for Sunday’s race, whilst Virgin’s Timo Glock failed to make the 107 percent requirement and will race at the stewards' discretion.
When all the penalties are taken into consideration, the starting order should be: Vettel, Webber; Alonso, Button; Hamilton, Massa; Rosberg, Sutil; Buemi, Alguersuari; Schumacher, di Resta; Maldonado, Senna; Barrichello, Petrov; Kobayashi, Kovalainen; Trulli, Perez; D'Ambrosio, Ricciardo; Karthikeyan, Glock.
