Pastor Maldonado issued ten-place grid penalty for third reprimand

Pastor Maldonado has been issued with a ten-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix, after the Venezuelan driver picked up his third reprimand of the season after missing the FIA weighbridge during qualifying at Interlagos. This grid drop will see Maldonado line-up 16th for tomorrow’s 71-lap race.

During the all-important qualifying session for the race, Maldonado entered the pit lane and did not notice the red light and FIA official indicating that the Venezuelan star should enter the weighbridge for a weight check. This resulted in Maldonado being called to the race stewards after the session, and subsequently issued a reprimand for his misdemeanor. However, with the Spanish Grand Prix winner already picking up two further reprimands throughout the year, Maldonado was therefore issued a further ten-place grid drop which will see him plummet from 6th to 16th on the grid.

This change of events will greatly benefit the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, who will therefore start tomorrow’s 71-lap Brazilian Grand Prix from 7th on the grid, one place up from where the Championship contender managed to qualify for the race. The same incident occurred during qualifying last time out at Austin with the Red Bull of Mark Webber, however the Australian driver was able to avoid any serious penalties as the team immediately returned Webber to the weighbridge after initially missing their command.

The race stewards have also decided that no further action is to be taken against either Pedro de la Rosa or Romain Grosjean, after the two drivers made minor contact with each other during qualifying earlier today. This minor altercation resulted in Grosjean loosing his front wing, and subsequently saw him fail to progress to Q2. The duo will start tomorrow’s race from 18th and 24th respectively.

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