Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner believes Esteban Gutierrez’s grid penalty for an incident in third practice is “very unfair”.
During the final 60-minute session on Saturday, Pascal Wehrlein was forced onto the grass to avoid the slow Gutierrez at the kink that leads onto the Kemmel Straight.
Wehrlein called Gutierrez a “f***ing idiot” over team radio afterwards and the stewards decided to give the Haas driver a five-place grid penalty for impeding the Manor.
Gutierrez also picked up three penalty points on his license. The Mexican qualified 13th but will start in 18th place due to the penalty.
“We had a good FP3 session, except for a communication issue with Esteban as he wasn’t made aware that Wehrlein was coming,” Steiner said.
“He received a five-place grid penalty which is very unfair as there was no intention on his side.”
Fun quali with good laps. Communication mistake in FP3 put us behind 5 places for the race, but we will fight back! pic.twitter.com/IHcfHbQWJG
— Esteban Gutierrez (@EstebanGtz) August 27, 2016
Gutierrez added: “In FP3 there was a miscommunication that cost us a five-place grid penalty, which is obviously very painful, but we will try to put that aside.
“I’ll start the race and give everything I’ve got to recover the lost positions and I’ll be fighting all the way to get into the top 10.”
