Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Petrov penalised after taking out Hulkenberg

Vitaly Petrov will lose five-places on the grid at the next event in Korea.

Renault's Vitaly Petrov has been punished by the stewards following the F1 2010 Japanese Grand Prix today.

The stewards ruled post-race that he had breach the regulations by causing a collision with the Williams of Nico Hulkenberg at the start of the race. As a result he picks up a five-place grid penalty for the next event in Korea.

Speaking after the race, Petrov maintained that he had to move over because of Nick Heidfeld.

“I made a good start and managed to overtake [Felipe] Massa,” Petrov explained. “I was then going passed Hulkenberg with [Nick] Heidfeld on my right when he started to move left and so I also had to move left to avoid him. Unfortunately I hit the side of Hulkenberg's car and this is why I crashed.”

Hulkenberg, who was the innocent victim, added: “I had a bad start and I didn't get off the line at all. I then saw Petrov coming up behind me. He touched my front right wheel and that was it.

"You never want to finish a race that early, but today it happened and it was unfortunate for us both. The team are doing a really good job developing the car and that showed in our qualifying performance so it was a shame to finish that early.”

Source: Crash

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