Five-place penalty for Karthikeyan
Narain Karthikeyan was penalized by the race stewards following the qualifying session. The HRT driver, who is racing at home this weekend, received a five-place grid penalty for obstructing Michael Schumacher during the first part of the Q1 qualifying session.
After Vitaly Petrov, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, and Daniel Ricciardo, it’s Narain Karthikeyan’s turn to receive a grid penalty for the Indian Grand Prix. The Indian driver, racing in front of his home crowd this weekend, was penalized by the stewards for impeding Schumacher’s Mercedes while the German was on a fast lap.
The seven-time world champion was at that moment in 18th position – and thus the first to be eliminated – and he was giving it his all to try to secure his qualification for Q2. He eventually managed to get into Q2, but Karthikeyan was still penalized by the stewards.
The HRT driver had set the 22nd fastest time of the session behind his teammate Daniel Ricciardo – who received a five-place penalty for changing his gearbox – and ahead of Jérome d’Ambrosio. Karthikeyan should therefore start from 23rd place tomorrow ahead of Timo Glock, if the German driver, who failed to set a time within the 107%, is allowed to race.
