Author Topic: Five drivers given grid penalties  (Read 2398 times)

Offline fasteddy

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Five drivers given grid penalties
« on: October 03, 2009, 10:07:33 AM »
source Autosport

By Pablo Elizalde    Saturday, October 3rd 2009, 10:26 GMT

Five Formula 1 drivers were given penalties for not lifting off during a yellow-flag period in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Championship leader Jenson Button, team-mate Rubens Barrichello, Renault driver Fernando Alonso, Force India's Adrian Sutil and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi were given five-place grid penalties after the session.

The race stewards deemed the first four drivers had not lifted off sufficiently at the end of Q2, when Buemi had crashed, leaving debris on track.

Brawn team boss Ross Brawn said his drivers, who had not set a time until then, had not lifted at all.

"No, they swerved to avoid the problem. But they didn't lift off, no," said Brawn.

Swiss driver Buemi was also reprimanded by the stewards for driving back to the pits with a damaged car and impeding other drivers.

Button had qualified in seventh, Barrichello in fifth, Alonso in 12th, Sutil in fourth and Buemi in 10th.

Pos  Driver       Team
 1.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault
 2.  Trulli       Toyota
 3.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes
 4.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber
 5.  Raikkonen    Ferrari 
 6.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota
 7.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber
 8.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  *
 9.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        *
10.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari
11.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        *
12.  Fisichella   Ferrari
13.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      **
14.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    *
15.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota
16.  Grosjean     Renault
17.  Alonso       Renault               *
18.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  **
19.  Glock        Toyota                ***
20.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      ***

*   Five-place grid penalty
**  Five-place grid penalty for changing gearbox
*** Will use new chassis so will start from the pitlane