Petrov penalised for blocking Glock

Renault driver Vitaly Petrov has been demoted five places on the grid for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix after stewards decided he impeded Virgin’s Timo Glock during qualifying. Glock was at the start of a flying lap during Q1 when he encountered a slow-running Petrov, who was joining the track from the pit lane.

The Russian, who qualified in 15th, will now start the race from 20th.

“I can only apologise to him if I held him up,” explained Petrov. “I didn’t see him coming up behind me and didn’t see any blue flags as I came out of the pits. My grid penalty will make things even harder in the race but, as we saw in Spa, tomorrow is another day and a lot can still happen.”