Petrov penalized for his collision with Schumacher
The Lotus-Renault GP driver will be penalized five places on the starting grid of the next Grand Prix in India.
During the Korean Grand Prix held this Sunday, Vitaly Petrov crashed into Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes GP on the 16th lap, causing both drivers to retire.
Petrov was then battling with Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, which had just come out of the pits. The Russian driver apparently misjudged his speed as he reached turn number 3, just after a long straight where the Lotus-Renault GP had its DRS activated.
The two drivers retired and were heard by the FIA stewards after the race. Michael Schumacher remained puzzled about the situation, without blaming Petrov too harshly: “I didn’t see Vitaly coming, I was just suddenly propelled in a direction I didn’t want to go, and then I saw my rear wing hanging off the car. It’s unfortunate, but these things happen when you’re fighting, it’s racing.”
Petrov, for his part, fully took responsibility: “I was focused on my battle with Fernando because I had the potential to be ahead of him. We both braked too late because he also missed his turn (…) I want to apologize to Michael, it wasn’t his fault.”
The FIA has decided to drop Vitaly Petrov five places during the qualifying session of the Indian Grand Prix in two weeks. A warning was also issued to the Russian driver.
