Heikki Kovalainen has been docked five places on the grid for this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, having overtaken illegally in Australia on Sunday.
The penalty marks a negative end to a somewhat disappointing weekend for newly-named Caterham, which had targeting Q2 qualifying. After finishing 19th and 20th in Q1, both cars retired from the season-opening race of 2012.
The five-place drop comes for passing two cars before the Safety Car line when the race was restarted on Lap 42; the Safety Car had been deployed when team-mate Vitaly Petrov stopped on the start/finish with a steering wheel problem.
'The penalty I got for the next race was because I passed Vettel before the first Safety Car line when coming into the pits, marginal, my mistake,' the Finn admitted on Twitter.
Kovalainen’s own race ended on Lap 41 because of a loose steering arm.
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  J. Button | McLaren | 1:34:09.565 |
| 2. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | +2.139 |
| 3. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +4.075 |
| 4. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +4.547 |
| 5. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +21.565 |
| 6. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | +36.766 |
| 7. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | +38.014 |
| 8. | S. Perez | Sauber | +39.458 |
| 9. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | +39.556 |
| 10. | P. di Resta | Force India | +39.737 |
| Full results | |||
| Heikki Kovalainen | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Heikki Kovalainen photos | |||
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