Caterham fined, Webber and Schumacher cleared
After the sanctions imposed on Grosjean and Maldonado, the FIA stewards decided to sanction the Caterham team as well. Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher, who were also under scrutiny, were cleared and no sanctions were taken against them.
In addition to Romain Grosjean’s suspension for a Grand Prix and the two 5-place penalties given to Pastor Maldonado for the Italian Grand Prix, the FIA stewards have also decided to sanction the Caterham team with a fine of 10,000 euros for dangerously releasing Heikki Kovalainen.
The Finn was released by his team just as Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT was arriving at his pit, causing the two men to collide without damage, however. But the Caterham team was deemed responsible for the incident and was penalized accordingly.
The stewards decided not to take any action against the Red Bull Racing team and Mark Webber for a similar incident with Felipe Massa, even though the two men did not make contact. The Australian driver admitted that he knew the Ferrari was there and managed his exit accordingly.
The stewards confirmed Webber’s version: « The stewards noted that the driver of car 2 (Webber) was aware of the arrival of car number 6 (Massa) in the pit lane and that he deliberately, after being released, stayed on his right and eased off the accelerator to allow car number 6 to enter its pit without obstruction, before car number 2 resumed the fast lane. »
The stewards also studied Michael Schumacher’s pit entry while he was battling with Sebastian Vettel. They decided no action was necessary: « Red Bull Racing admitted to the stewards that their instruction to the driver of car number 1 (Vettel) was to “do the opposite of car number 7 (Schumacher).” Consequently, when car number 7 headed towards the pit lane entrance, car number 1 decided to cancel its pit entry. »
