Bianchi penalized, Van der Garde inherits pole

Lotus ART’s Jules Bianchi will not start from pole position in tomorrow’s feature race after he was judged to have ignored the yellow flags in the early stages of this afternoon’s qualifying session. As Fabio Leimer slowed down to a stop following mechanical gremlins, the session was briefly under yellow flags, but the stewards found out that Bianchi had improved his laptime.

The Frenchman was therefore handed a ten grid position penalty and will start from 11th tomorrow. Giedo van der Garde was promoted to pole position, with Sam Bird starting from the front row next to the Barwa Addax man. The Dutchman’s teammate Charles Pic will now start from P3, next to countryman and Series leader Romain Grosjean.