Fisichella hopes Villeneuve gets penalty

The Renault driver missed out on making it through to Q3 after getting baulked by Villeneuve during Q2 - and he angrily stormed down to the BMW garage straight afterwards to express his frustration at the situation.

Villeneuve came to speak to Fisichella following qualifying but, after failing to apologise, the Renault driver remains furious at the situation. The pair have been to see the race stewards and Fisichella wants Villeneuve's best time deleted. A ruling is expected after this afternoon's GP2 race.

Article 116B of Formula One's sporting regulations warns that the race stewards will delete the times of any driver who they believe has 'impeded' another driver during qualifying.

The rule states: "If, in the opinion of the stewards, a driver deliberately stops on the circuit or impedes another driver in any way during the qualifying practice session his times will be cancelled."

Fisichella believes that the stewards should make an example of Villeneuve to prevent a repeat of the situation in the future.

"If there is a rule where one driver slows down another driver you have to stick to the rule, so he has to lose his time," explained Fisichella. "Otherwise it will happen again."

Speaking about the incident, Fisichella said: "It is unacceptable. He knows how much you lose when we are behind another car, even from 100m. You lose a lot of downforce, a lot of grip. It is unacceptable even more because he was on his out lap.

"I'm really disappointed and angry. There are rules and we have to respect the rules. There is a code between drivers and he didn't respect that. There is a rule that if you slow down another driver you lose your time.

"Now I'm 13th fastest. He slowed me down and stopped me being in the top 10. My team-mate is on pole. I don't say I would have been on pole but I could have been second, third or fourth. There would have been the possibility to race to win. Now back in 13th there is not the possibility to even get on the podium."

Fisichella claimed he was angrier about the situation now because Villeneuve refused to apologise for what happened.

Referring to his walk down to the BMW pits, Fisichella said: "I said what did you do, what have you done? I was so angry. And I am more angry because he didn't say sorry.

"I spoke already with him and didn't say sorry, so for me it is finished.

"He said that he was trying to keep his tyres warm and that I was not too close. But I was so close, already from Turn 9. I was showing with my arms that I wanted to get by from the middle of the circuit.

"He knows that, and he knows the effect. It is unacceptable, what he said. It was very unprofessional."