[bromgeksan]

McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen have been penalised five grid places for impeding rivals during qualifying at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The pair had been on the second row but Hamilton will now start in ninth, one place behind his Finnish team-mate.

After qualifying they were summoned by the stewards to answer complaints they held others up in the last session.

BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and Renault driver Fernando Alonso said they were impeded on their flying laps in Sepang.

During the final session of qualifying in Sepang, when 10 drivers go all out for the top grid positions, both Heidfeld and Alonso felt they had been slowed by the McLarens.

Kovalainen and Hamilton, who had finished third and fourth respectively, had completed their fast laps and were slowing down to conserve fuel.

But Heidfeld complained their actions had cost him vital seconds.

"Most of the cars were already very slow when I was on my flying lap, just like they were parked on the circuit," he said.




"Both of the McLarens were in front at turn four, in the middle of the racing line.

"I just couldn't drive on the line that I wanted and, even more importantly, I could not brake where I wanted to.

"If you look at the times, they were very, very close - I lost two tenths and I think that would have put me third."

Heidfeld had complained to his team on the radio.

The others were going slowly, and that affected me a bit, which is a shame

Renault driver Fernando Alonso

"From my point of view, it was not correct what they did," he said.

Alonso, who left McLaren after a turbulent season to rejoin Renault, also felt he was denied a quick lap by the McLarens.

"I could have done better in Q3 this afternoon as I was with Heidfeld on a fast lap while the others were going slowly, and that affected me a bit, which is a shame," the double world champion said.

However, the McLaren team insisted they had done all they could to make sure their rivals were able to cleanly complete their flying laps.

"We informed our drivers that there were people trying to do their flying laps," chief executive Martin Whitmarsh had said before the punishment was announced.

"There was congestion at one part of the circuit with six cars trying to go into one corner.

"They did all they could to squeeze over to allow Nick and Fernando to do their quick laps.

"I don't think we impaired Nick but I can understand visually if you have got all of those cars and you are trying to do a quick lap it is not something you are going to be comfortable or happy with."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/moto...ne/7309337.stm

Alonso twists the knife too? Stroll in the park for the Ferraris then.. Still, will be interesting to see how Lewis and Heiki cope from so far back...

[Lilji]

i hope for dry race..massa cannot stay for long in a wet truck!

[Acalsenunse]

If both McLarens hadnt held up both Nick and Fernando there would be no knife to twist Zico

I think its quite a dangerouse thing to do to be honest

pushishment fits the crime IMHO

[bromgeksan]

If both McLarens hadnt held up both Nick and Fernando there would be no knife to twist Zico

I think its quite a dangerouse thing to do to be honest

pushishment fits the crime IMHO

I dont dissagree with you.

I didnt see the holding up fernando incident and as he hadnt mentioned anything about it initially in his post qualifying interview so I was a bit surprised..

Rain + no traction control? should be interesting !

[en-druzhba]

Yeah, that was a pretty stupid move. I'm no fan of penalties being arbitrarily handed out to McLaren, but this one seems totally justified.
To be honest, I think that so long as they don't break down (or spin off, which is less likely if they're not involved in any battles) then the Ferraris are going to walk it anyway. They probably are light, but they were much faster than everyone else. Plus, assuming he gets off the grid, the rest of the pack will probably end up stuck behind Trulli until he pits.

[FUNALA]

difficult one, i can understand the punishment, and it seems quite fair from what i saw, Heidfield especially seemed to have to weave between several cars up to one corner (turn 3?). however i can't see why only the McLarens were handed the punishment, it seems to me that all the cars who were dawdling round, were at least a distraction, at worst really dangerous and i'd haul them all yup in front of the stewards and give them all a penalty/fine and make sure that everyone's in laps were contrained to 110-120% of the drivers fastest lap.

to just pull up McLaren for this one seems rather excessive IMO, however i do agree they should be puished in this case, just not only them

[refdhbgtd]

Yeah, that was a pretty stupid move. I'm no fan of penalties being arbitrarily handed out to McLaren, but this one seems totally justified.
To be honest, I think that so long as they don't break down (or spin off, which is less likely if they're not involved in any battles) then the Ferraris are going to walk it anyway. They probably are light, but they were much faster than everyone else. Plus, assuming he gets off the grid, the rest of the pack will probably end up stuck behind Trulli until he pits.

Something similar to da that was done last year in Brazil by Hamilton. He "happened" to be in Kimi's way during his final run. However, Kimi did not officially complain and Hamilton was not penalized.

[Marinausa]

I think the punishment was completely fair to dock both Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen for holding up Heidfeld and Alonso. However the FIA need to sort the third qualifying session. There were far too many cars travelling far too slowly when there were still cars out on hot laps. It is very dangerous. While it was the McLaren's today it could easily be someone else in Bahrain. Something should be done to stop it.

[BGThomasis]

Well no question that this pair in dense. But this is another bull**** rule by Mosely with dictates the cars should conserve all the fuel they can. We need to get the "Gay" out of F1 and that be Mosely. Next you are going to have someone going 300k and even being on the outside of the line, someone is going to get T Boned soon. Damn if Stewart is a half wit what does this make Mosely - Where in the hell is Nikki Lauda!!

[en-druzhba]

difficult one, i can understand the punishment, and it seems quite fair from what i saw, Heidfield especially seemed to have to weave between several cars up to one corner (turn 3?). however i can't see why only the McLarens were handed the punishment, it seems to me that all the cars who were dawdling round, were at least a distraction, at worst really dangerous and i'd haul them all yup in front of the stewards and give them all a penalty/fine and make sure that everyone's in laps were contrained to 110-120% of the drivers fastest lap.

to just pull up McLaren for this one seems rather excessive IMO, however i do agree they should be puished in this case, just not only them

Kubica, Raikkonen and Massa were all on shot as being very slow while others were still qualifying, and I believe that Heidfeld or Alonso said that there was a 4th car doing the same. But they were all off the racing line, whereas the McLarens kept to theirs. The shot of Heidfeld overtaking the McLarens looked pretty scary as with Kubica on the other side of the track at the back, they were pretty much 3-abrest.
But admittedly that might need to be looked at, the McLarens certainly weren't the only drivers being stupidly slow.

[FUNALA]

i agree Nikki, to me the issue isn't where they were on the track, but the stupid speed they were doing, there was probably a potential 150mph closing speed and that could have been a recipe for a massive and dangerous accident, and regardless of being on the line or not then cars hanging around that close to a flat out qualifier is a massive distraction.

don't get me worong, i think the Macca's are right to be punished, but i think there are a couple of others out there who have been very lucky to escape the same punishment

[erepsysoulpfbs]

Kimi and Massa were slow that's for sure but both stayed clear off the racing line and weren't bothering Heidi or Alonso in the corners. Kubica was on the other side of the track than McLarens and and wasn't bothering the two who were on a fast lap, or else Alonso would have complained about him too.

[XGoFivk7]

McLaren got penalized because they are McLaren. Traffic is a fact of life in qualifying, and you can't blame a team for slowing down to try and work with an idiotic refueling rule.

Why were no other drivers/teams penalized for slowing down? Because they aren't competing with Ferrari for the world championship. It's just the first 2008 installment of the ongoing bias towards Ferrari, exercised by the people within, who are already panicking that Ferrari scored a mere 1 point in the first race.

[Vedun*]

Why were no other drivers/teams penalized for slowing down?

Because they weren't doing it on the racing line.

[Lebybynctisee]

McLaren got penalized because they are McLaren.

Cobblers, they were very rightly penalised for being (intended or not) on the racing line travelling at a snails pace.

Traffic is a fact of life in qualifying, and you can't blame a team for slowing down to try and work with an idiotic refueling rule.

Traffic is a fact of life due to these numpty rules, but why make a dodgy situation more dangerous. STAY OFF THE RACING LINE IF YOU ARE NOT RACING - Simple!

Why were no other drivers/teams penalized for slowing down? Because they aren't competing with Ferrari for the world championship. It's just the first 2008 installment of the ongoing bias towards Ferrari, exercised by the people within, who are already panicking that Ferrari scored a mere 1 point in the first race.

Other teams drivers' had the wherewithal to move out the way. No Bias, just Ferrari were off the racing line, well out of the way. Nuff said.

[XGoFivk7]

Wait and see by the end of the season, how many times McLaren are penalized for "something" and how many times Ferrari... :-)

[leijggeds]

difficult one, i can understand the punishment, and it seems quite fair from what i saw, Heidfield especially seemed to have to weave between several cars up to one corner (turn 3?). however i can't see why only the McLarens were handed the punishment, it seems to me that all the cars who were dawdling round, were at least a distraction, at worst really dangerous and i'd haul them all yup in front of the stewards and give them all a penalty/fine and make sure that everyone's in laps were contrained to 110-120% of the drivers fastest lap.

to just pull up McLaren for this one seems rather excessive IMO, however i do agree they should be puished in this case, just not only them

agreed

Kubica, Raikkonen and Massa were all on shot as being very slow while others were still qualifying, and I believe that Heidfeld or Alonso said that there was a 4th car doing the same. But they were all off the racing line, whereas the McLarens kept to theirs. The shot of Heidfeld overtaking the McLarens looked pretty scary as with Kubica on the other side of the track at the back, they were pretty much 3-abrest.
But admittedly that might need to be looked at, the McLarens certainly weren't the only drivers being stupidly slow.

that too

I really don't have a problem with the fine excpet that there were several other cars out there going at snails pace as well. LH and HK could have easlily said that they abortered their final lap becuase of traffic ahead.

Alos the notion of the racing line is actually subjective rather than an actual factual matter. Who's to say that the other side of the track isn't a prefered racing line to others.

Either they should have all been penalised ( my opinion) or no one should have been penalised.

It would have been great to see 1-5 all penalised 5 grid spots and a proper race ensue. Also it would have detered anyone from pulling that stunt off in the future. The whole point of Q3 was that they calculated their fuel strategy properly, so they should factor that last in-lap as well under an appropriate speed.

[erepsysoulpfbs]

Alos the notion of the racing line is actually subjective rather than an actual factual matter. Who's to say that the other side of the track isn't a prefered racing line to others.

You're joking, right?
No driver on the grid uses a different line than others in a corner like that, first it is the fastest way to drive a corner, second, that's the clean line.

[Lilji]

maximilian if mclaren block other drivers and punished and ferrari dont block that dont mean fia is not fair!!! get over it

[Lilji]

to truefan72

2 mclarens stay on the RACING LINE!!!
the other drivers including ferraris take the other line outside of the racing line