Adrian Sutil will start the Bahrain Grand Prix from last place after being handed a penalty for holding up Romain Grosjean during qualifying.
The Sauber driver was handed a five-placed penalty which demotes him to last on the grid. Sutil was also given two penalty points on his licence.
The stewards ruled he “forced car eight [Grosjean] off the track between turns 13 and 14 in an unsafe manner.”
Sutil originally qualified in 18th place.
See the updated Bahrain Grand Prix grid
2014 Bahrain Grand Prix
Image © Sauber
@HoHum (@hohum)
5th April 2014, 19:43
Sutil, Force India ?
@HoHum (@hohum)
5th April 2014, 19:44
OK, you spotted it before I posted.
ceeam
5th April 2014, 19:44
He races for Sauber this year.
Vibhor Maheshwari (@maheshvi)
5th April 2014, 19:44
Sutil is no longer a Force India driver, please correct that !!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
5th April 2014, 19:45
Every race I forget about Sutil. Then I see his name and wonder what the heck he’s doing racing in F1…
I repeat, no sympathy for Sauber this year from me.
AbeyG (@1abe)
5th April 2014, 20:11
+1
Joe (@joetoml1n)
5th April 2014, 20:37
To be fair, I think even had Sauber been able to get Sirotkin a super license, I would of picked Sutil over him any day of the week.. Over the course of a season, I can’t see Sirotkin being the more reliable driver.
AbeyG (@1abe)
5th April 2014, 21:25
Maybe not Sirotkin. But Van Der Garde is more quick and reliable than Sutil.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th April 2014, 1:37
@joetoml1n we don’t know. To be honest, I’d rather risk it, and see what happens than endure a whole year KNOWING that nothing will happen…
Joe (@joetoml1n)
6th April 2014, 1:57
@fer-no65 I think he’ll have a solid but unspectacular year to be honest, doing exactly what the cars able too(but unfortunately no more than that).. The solid part is what Sauber will have chosen him for..
Strontium (@strontium)
5th April 2014, 22:16
+3.
Awful choices of driver, when they could have gone for up and coming speed with a year or two of F1 experience to go from.
Himmat
5th April 2014, 19:45
2 more penalty points. Meh. Who’s the first to be suspended a race this year?
Joe (@joetoml1n)
5th April 2014, 20:38
Hopefully no one!
Strontium (@strontium)
5th April 2014, 22:17
Well, Maldonado is too far behind to hit anybody, sooo…
Whoever the stewards choose to victimise this year.
Beto (@chebeto)
5th April 2014, 20:06
On German TV Sutil said he didn’t make it to Q2 because Grojean was the one who impeded him. That and because he has extra kilos on his teammate. I think he can’t cope with the fact that the young guy beats him.
Also, to put in comparison, Hülkenberg said on TV that he didn’t make it to Q1 because his lap was just not good enough. No excuses, took the responsibility. I think that makes the difference between an average driver and an excellent one.
Sam S (@sam-sam)
5th April 2014, 20:28
@chebeto
I’m not defending Sutil’s driving abilities but I think he and some other heavier drivers are consumed by the fact that they do have a slight handicap. Two team mates could have the same driving style, same skills, same endurance but guess who will come ahead? The car with the lighter weight. The problem with these cars is that drivers are not able to take the to the limit, so even if Sutil was that good and wanted to use his additional muscle mass as an advantage, he can’t.
The Abbinator (@abbinator)
5th April 2014, 23:34
That, and he has always been a tool, and a very slow tool at that.
Bforth (@bforth)
6th April 2014, 3:20
Don’t let him hear you say that if there are champagne glasses nearby!
AbeyG (@1abe)
5th April 2014, 20:21
I supported Still during his years in Force India, always expecting something good from him, never got any. But after leaving FI and his comments that it was FI’s fault that he couldn’t get podiums and Sauber can, I lost all respect for him. I really don’t think he ll last this year. And I won’t mind that.
AbeyG (@1abe)
5th April 2014, 21:21
*Sutil..
Rigi (@rigi)
5th April 2014, 21:12
in those 20 pre-season queastion i said he’d be the first driver to be replaced or substututed for a race.
if he doesn’t step his game up, it will probably come true.
DaveD (@daved)
5th April 2014, 21:50
I used to be a Sutil fan and had hopes he would do better if he just had the right opportunity. OK, it was denial and he’s a pud. Everything is always someone else’s fault. His driving, his actions at night clubs, whatever. He needs to go find something else to do for a living.
Palle (@palle)
6th April 2014, 7:45
Maybe stand-in for Sylvester Stallone?;-)
shanechenery
5th April 2014, 23:45
So Sutil impedes a driver, and his penalty is being made to start 22nd instead of 18th!! Ricciardo does nothing wrong (his team stuffed up), and he gets a stop-go AND a 10 place grid penalty!! What a joke!
Adam Blocker (@blockwall2)
6th April 2014, 0:36
@keithcollantine does this mean sutil will be demoted one place in China as well? Because he can only drop four places in Bahrain, and I recall an at least proposed rule that says that grid penalties carry over. Is this true?
Chris (@ukphillie)
6th April 2014, 0:48
I’m not so sure how I feel about this.
It was pretty much the exact same thing as Rosberg and Perez. How are the penalties so polar?
Chris (@tophercheese21)
6th April 2014, 1:22
Good. When I saw what he did it actually shocked me. Forced Grosjean to the right, and then kept forcing him right until he was off the track. Very very poor driving.
Johnny Cecotto Jr. would’ve been proud.
dragoll (@dragoll)
6th April 2014, 4:04
When i first saw this I was very surprised, its not something you expect to see in Qualy, more of a defensive race manouvre. I am now even more surprised by his defense of his manouvre by suggesting that GRO had held him up, that’s not what I saw from the footage.
dkpioe
6th April 2014, 15:00
former champion Alan Jones on Australian tv said he saw it as sutil just moving off the racing line to let grosjean through, but grosjean chose to go up the inside to pass, so maybe it was a misjudgement. I don’t think there was any malice in it.