Force India visit stewards over crash

The world champion appeared to lose control of his Ferrari under braking for the chicane on the final restart of a rain-affected race, before hitting the rear of the Force India, causing terminal damage to the German's car.

Sutil was disconsolate having produced a career-best drive in the wet conditions, and Gascoyne told UK broadcaster ITV that he believed that had the roles been reversed his driver could have expected a penalty.

"The frustration is that if that had been a Force India driver hitting a world champion we would expect to get a one or two race ban, but when it is the other way around it is disappointing that the stewards... well you know I hope they look at it and act accordingly," said Gascoyne.

"We have asked the stewards immediately to look at it because they should do," he added.

"That sort of driving, taking someone else out needlessly, as I said if that had been someone at the back, a young guy doing it, they would get a penalty. But it doesn't seem to happen the other way around."

Gascoyne said he was particularly disappointed because the incident had come after Force India's best performance in Formula One.

Sutil had made the most of wet conditions to climb into the top seven by lap 15, and Gascoyne said that it was through a combination of good driving, clever strategy and some fortune that they were running fourth on merit, between the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Raikkonen when the accident occurred.

"Obviously it was a great event for us and a great race from Adrian," he said. "We got some luck in certain things, but also we were very much on top of the strategy. We were in control, we picked up places on the track because we controlled when to switch to dry tyres.

"On the restart we didn't really have a problem, but Raikkonen always looked as if he was going to do something stupid and in the end he did.

"Adrian has always been good in mixed conditions, obviously last year in the wet around here and on Saturday morning when it was he was very competitive, so we were pretty confident in him.

"Even on the restart we felt he could cope with Raikkonen behind him. And he could, he made a good restart, bringing his tyres in, everything was under control but he just got hit up the back."