Major penalties for Esteban Gutiérrez and Max Chilton
If Pastor Maldonado was very unhappy with his car, he will at least have the satisfaction of seeing Esteban Gutiérrez and Max Chilton being penalized for blocking him in Q1.
The images during the first part of the Austin qualifying could have made spectators shiver: completely focused on warming up his tires by zigzagging before entering the pit straight, Esteban Gutiérrez didn’t see Pastor Maldonado’s Williams approaching in his mirrors. Maldonado narrowly avoided the collision, but it compromised his qualification once again. In the end, the Venezuelan ranked 18th.
Nevertheless, he has just regained a position as the stewards determined that he was indeed hindered by the Mexican driver as well as Max Chilton’s Marussia. Indeed, the officials were strict with the local participant, handing him a ten-place grid penalty instead of the usual five. They wanted to penalize a maneuver they deemed particularly dangerous. Instead of starting 10th, the Sauber driver will now start 20th.
As for Max Chilton, found guilty of obstructing the Williams driver as well as Adrian Sutil, he will have to make a mandatory pit stop within the first five laps of the race, similar to what was imposed on Charles Pic in Japan. The logic behind this penalty is that the British driver was already starting from the last row. A grid drop wouldn’t have made much difference to him, unlike the impact of this penalty.
