Maldonado hit with grid penalty

01/09/2012

Pastor Maldonado will now start the Belgian Grand Prix from the third row of the grid after being hit with a three-place penalty.

The Williams driver, who qualified third, his best result since taking pole in Spain, a race he went on to win, was under investigation for an incident in Q1 involving Nico Hulkenberg.

Having looked at the video evidence and listened to the explanations of the drivers and their team representatives, the stewards ruled that : "The driver of car 18 (Maldonado) was warned by his team not to 'hold up' car 12 (Hulkenberg) which was behind him, and yet he clearly did impede car 12.

"However as car 12 continued into Q2 a more severe penalty was not considered appropriate."

The Venezuelan was issued with a three-place penalty that drops him from the front second to the third, promoting Raikkonen, Perez and Alonso one place each.

Mark Webber, who qualified seventh, and Nico Rosberg, who qualified eighteenth, had previously been handed five-place penalties after opting to change the gearboxes in their cars.

Asked at the post qualifying press conference about the incident with Hulkenberg, Maldonado claimed not to remember it.

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