Adrian Sutil has been given a five-place grid penalty for impeding Romain Grosjean during Q1 for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The German, who qualified 18th, was deemed to have forced the Lotus driver off track and onto the run off during an attempt to improve his lap time.
Grosjean managed to make it through to Q2 despite the battle.
As well as a grid drop, Sutil was awarded two penalty points on his super licence as part of a new regulation for 2014 where a driver can accumulate 12 points before a race ban is imposed.
Speaking after, Grosjean played down the incident: “It probably looked quite close on television but it wasn’t.
“That’s okay, it’s qualifying,” he replied when asked if he expected an apology from Sutil.