Sauber fined, Rosberg reprimanded, and Pic penalized

After the five-place penalty received by Adrian Sutil for changing his gearbox following his accident during free practice 3, the FIA stewards were busy at Suzuka, imposing further sanctions.

Nico Rosberg received a reprimand – his second – for being too slow on track approaching the 130R while Charles Pic was coming up behind him and for not clearly giving way to the Caterham driver.

« The car 9 [Rosberg] slowed down to less than 90 km/h when car 20 [Pic] was approaching at full speed on the straight. The speed differential was about 200 km/h at the moment when car 20 needed to decide which side to pass. The driver of car 9 admitted that he should have indicated more clearly to car 20 which side he could pass on by moving to the side, » stated the stewards’ report.

For another incident during these free practice 3 sessions, the Sauber team was fined 20,000 euros for misleading Nico Hülkenberg with a radio message while Max Chilton was behind him and on a fast lap.

The team of car 11 [Sauber] informed him [Hülkenberg] over the radio that car 23 [Chilton] was on a slow lap. Car 11 was preparing for a fast lap when the driver realized that car 23 was right behind him and did his best to give way to car 23. The team of car 23 [Marussia] does not believe the incident caused any inconvenience. However, even if the driver of car 11 is not deemed guilty of a breach of article 16.1(g), we determine that the team is responsible for the incident, which could have been potentially dangerous, due to delivering incorrect information, » explain the stewards.

Charles Pic was also penalized, but with an unusual penalty. Indeed, the Frenchman received a drive-through penalty that he must serve within the first five laps of the race for exiting the pits while the light was red. This is the second consecutive time this has happened to the Caterham driver after Korea, where he received a third reprimand resulting in a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend.

Pilots reprimanded to date in 2013

12 drivers have been reprimanded this season. As a reminder, after three reprimands, the regulations provide for a 10-place penalty on the next starting grid – as is the case for Bianchi and Pic this weekend at Suzuka.

– Mark Webber, 3

– Charles Pic, 3

– Jules Bianchi, 3

– Nico Rosberg, 2

– Fernando Alonso, 1

– Valtteri Bottas, 1

– Romain Grosjean, 1

– Lewis Hamilton, 1

– Kimi Räikkönen, 1

– Adrian Sutil, 1

– Giedo van der Garde, 1

– Max Chilton, 1