Maldonado penalty promotes Alonso to seventh on the grid
25 November, 2012
Pastor Maldonado drives his Williams in to parc ferme after Brazilian GP qualiyfing
Nov.25 (Apex) A few hours after the cheqeuered flag waved to end qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Pastor Maldonado was handed a 10-place grid penalty by the FIA stewards after failing to take his Williams to the weigh bridge when called to do so by officials.
Maldonado, who had qualified in sixth, received a reprimand for the incident, but because it was his third reprimand of the 2012 season he was automatically dropped ten places on the Interlagos grid, which promoted championship contender Fernando Alonso to seventh place on the grid – a berth closer to his title rival Sebastian Vettel – and notably to the clean side of the grid.
Provisional grid taking into account Maldonado’s penalty:
| No | Driver | Team | Grid |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1 |
| 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 2 |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 3 |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 4 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 5 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 6 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 7 |
| 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 8 |
| 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 9 |
| 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 10 |
| 19 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 11 |
| 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 12 |
| 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 13 |
| 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 14 |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 15 |
| 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 16 |
| 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 17 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 18 |
| 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 19 |
| 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 20 |
| 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 21 |
| 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 22 |
| 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 23 |
| 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 24 |
Related posts:
- Interlagos Practice 2: Hamilton retains the upper hand
- Practice 2: Maldonado fastest as rain arrives in force at Hockenheim
- Montreal Practice 3: Vettel only just faster than Alonso
- Monaco Practice 3: Rosberg fastest as Maldonado crashes
- Maldonado silences his critics with cool, calm and historic Spanish GP victory
