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Stewards overrule 107pc cut for four drivers at Spa

And Maldonado has been demoted five grid positions

By GMM

27 August 2011 - 18:10

The stewards have exempted four drivers from the 107 per cent qualifying rule at Spa-Francorchamps.

Virgin’s Jerome d’Ambrosio, as well as both HRT drivers, failed to qualify within the mandatory 7 per cent of Sebastian Vettel’s pole time on the wet Belgian track.

And Michael Schumacher, on the 20th anniversary of his F1 debut at this circuit and wearing a special golden helmet, also failed to qualify after a rear wheel fell off his Mercedes in Q1.

The stewards however have ruled that all four may start Sunday’s 2011 Belgian grand prix. Weather forecasters are predicting a dry race.

On the Pastor Maldonado/Lewis Hamilton incident, the Williams driver has been demoted five grid positions for colliding with the McLaren after the chequered flag in Q2.

But alternate replay angles of the incident also showed Hamilton making a move towards the Venezuelan rookie, and so the 2008 world champion received a formal reprimand.

The new starting grid:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Q1 time	Q2 time	Q3 time	Penalty
01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault	2.03.029	2.03.317	1.48.298	---
02	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	2.03.008	2.02.823	1.48.730	---
03	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault	2.02.827	2.03.302	1.49.376	---
04	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2.05.834	2.04.507	1.50.256	---
05	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	2.05.091	2.03.723	1.50.552	---
06	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari	2.05.419	2.04.561	1.50.773	---
07	Bruno Senna	Lotus Renault GP	2.05.047	2.04.452	1.51.121	---
08	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2.04.450	2.02.768	1.51.251	---
09	Sergio Perez	Sauber Ferrari	2.06.284	2.04.625	1.51.374	---
10	Vitaly Petrov	Lotus Renault GP	2.05.292	2.03.466	1.52.303	---
—	----------------	---------------	----------	----------	----------	---
11	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	2.04.744	2.04.692		---
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari	2.07.194	2.04.757		---
13	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	2.01.813	2.05.150		---
14	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth	2.05.720	2.07349		---
15	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	2.06.000	2.07.777		---
16	Heikki Kovalainen	Team Lotus Renault	2.06.780	2.08.354		---
17	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	2.07.758			---
—	----------------	---------------	----------	----------	----------	---
18	Jarno Trulli	Team Lotus Renault	2.08.773			---
19	Timo Glock	Marussia Virgin Racing Cosworth	2.09.566			---
20	Jérôme d’Ambrosio	Marussia Virgin Racing Cosworth	2.11.601			---
21	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Cosworth	2.05.621	2.08.106		+5
22	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT F1 Cosworth	2.11.616			---
23	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT F1 Cosworth	2.13.077			---
24	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	-.—.---			---