Sutil fined after Heidfeld smash
Date published : 27 Sep 2009 - 17:54:29
Adrian Sutil has been fined $20,000 (£12,520) and reprimanded by Singapore Grand Prix stewards after being found guilty of causing a collision with BMW s Nick Heidfeld in Sunday s race.The Force India driver, running in a group of cars at the back of the field, had spun at turn 14 after a failed overtaking move on Jaime Alguersuari s Toro Rosso but as he attempted to make an immediate spin-turn smashed into the side of the oncoming BMW.The incident, which ended Heidfeld s record-breaking run of 41 consecutive race classifications, was investigated by stewards after the race and Sutil was subsequently punished with the reprimand and fine.Earlier Heidfeld had made it clear that he felt blame for the incident entirely lay at his fellow German s door. For me it was clearly Adrian Sutil's fault, the BMW man complained. Obviously I saw it from the inside and later also on TV. He had spun backwards and then just drove back onto the track and straight into my car. That's something you just can't do. I had no chance to avoid this accident. Heidfeld s chances of securing a strong result from the weekend were largely over before the race had begun after he dropped out of seventh on the grid and started from the pit lane after BMW discovered his car had qualified underweight.The German was nevertheless disappointed the stupid incident resulted in his first race retirement since the US Grand Prix in June 2007. I was last with a lot of fuel on board, he said. The speed at the back of the pack was very low and, therefore, I started to save fuel very early on as overtaking was impossible anyway. Although my chances were far from promising today, it is still annoying not to finish because of such a stupid incident."Sutil, meanwhile, admitted he had decided to make a move on the struggling Alguersuari after being becoming frustrated behind the 19-year-old, but stressed he simply hadn t seen Heidfeld as he tried to recover after the spin. It was quite frustrating at the start as we knew with the one stop we were very heavy, but Jaime [Alguersuari] was very slow and really fighting with the car, Sutil explained. He was holding me up a lot and I tried a few times to pass him but I finally saw a chance. I tried and it wasn't enough - I was a little late on the brakes, spun and that's it. Then Nick came around the corner and hit my front wing as I was stuck in the corner. I didn't see him coming as I was on the move already and couldn't react to it, but I'm sorry for it. It was a race incident.
