• Chinese Grand Prix

Gutierrez given five-place grid penalty for Sutil crash

Esteban Gutierrez ran in to the back of Adrian Sutil early in the race © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Chinese Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Esteban Gutiérrez
• |
• Nico Hülkenberg

• Teams:
• Alfa Romeo

Esteban Gutierrez has been given a five-place grid penalty for the Bahrain Grand Prix after causing a collision in the Chinese GP.

Gutierrez misjudged his braking point and ran in to the back of Adrian Sutil at Turn 14, taking both cars out of the race. The stewards found that Gutierrez was guilty of causing a collision and as a result he will take a drop of five places on the grid at next weekend's race at Sakhir.

"The driver of car 12 [Gutierrez] admitted he had misjudged the closing speed on car 15 [Sutil]," the stewards explained.

Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg finished the race in tenth place having led early on and he admitted he was surprised by a lack of pace in the closing stages.

"It was quite a mixed race with mixed emotions," Hulkenberg said. "It was obviously very nice to be leading again, and to be at the front battling with the top teams. I had a reasonable start and some nice battles in the first couple of laps. I was able to gain some positions, but, somehow, towards the end of the race, we were losing or lacking a little bit of pace.

"Once you are in the lead or second you understandably hope for more. Nevertheless, it might not have been the true picture, as we were racing out of sequence with other people who were starting on soft tyres. But anyway, it was quite a good race. I don't think the two issues I had in pit lane made a difference between winning or losing."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.