Spengler given Barcelona grid penalty

Date published : 19 Sep 2009 - 17:27:36

Bruno Spengler has been dropped four places to eighth on the grid for Sunday's DTM race at Barcelona due to his car not having the required amount of fuel in it after qualifying.The Canadian's Mercedes C-class slowed as he started to run out of fuel at the end of his final qualifying lap and Spengler stopped the car shortly afterwards.Once it was brought back to the pits, it did not have the minimum amount of fuel required to give a sample to the stewards.The German motorsport authority then decided to penalise Spengler by taking away his times from the third and fourth segments of qualifying, dropping him to eighth on the grid.Mercedes has admitted that the problem was caused by a mistake in the pits, with Spengler's crew filling his car up with the wrong fuel can, rather than the one that had the right amount to allow him to complete the session.