Five GP2 drivers penalized after qualifying

Five drivers were each handed a five position penalty for tomorrow's race one grid after failing to sufficiently slow when a yellow flag was shown in the early stages of today's qualifying session in Istanbul.

Diego Nunes, Alberto Valerio, Milos Pavlovic, Andy Soucek and Mike Conway were all called before the stewards at the completion of the session to discuss their actions. In the opening minutes of qualifying Kamui Kobayashi spun off track at turn one and Alvaro Parente clipped the curb at turn three before spinning to a halt shortly after, with waved yellow flags shown for both incidents.

After the discussions all five drivers were adjudged to have not slowed sufficiently, and an automatic five place penalty was handed down to them. Valerio's penalty is in addition to the earlier five grid position penalty he picked up for completing two laps after the end of this morning's free practice session, a penalty which Kamui Kobayashi also collected, while Ben Hanley will start ten places behind his qualifying position as a result of causing an avoidable crash in race two at the Circuit de Catalunya in the opening weekend of this year's championship.