• Italian Grand Prix - Qualifying

Petrov hit with five-place grid penalty

ESPNF1 Staff
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Vitaly Petrov held up Timo Glock at the first chicane © Getty Images
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Vitaly Petrov has been slapped with a five-place grid penalty for holding up Timo Glock during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.

On exiting the pits during the first session of qualifying, Petrov placed his Renault on the apex of the first chicane, baulking Glock on his first flying lap. The stewards decided on a five-place grid penalty that will drop Petrov from 15th to 20th on the grid.

"As for the incident with Timo, I can only apologise to him if I held him up," Petrov said. "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."

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