Penalty compounds Caterham's miserable Melbourne

18/03/2012

Caterham's Australian Grand Prix went from bad to worse when Heikki Kovalainen was handed a five-place grid penalty for next weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Anglo-Malaysian outfit's race fell apart within a couple of laps, Vitaly Petrov stopping on the main straight with a steering wheel issue and teammate Kovalainen driving into his garage four laps later with a suspension problem.

Ironically, the Finn's Malaysia penalty is for overtaking while the safety car was deployed following his teammate's retirement

"Both stops went well but then I felt the car starting to pull left under braking," said the former Renault and McLaren driver, "so we brought the car in to take a look and it seems like a front left suspension problem was causing the handling imbalance I'd felt for a few laps before we had to retire."

An incident involving Felipe Massa and Bruno Senna, which was investigated by the stewards, was subsequently dismissed as a racing incident.