Webber Penalised by One Second for Qualifying

Jaguar driver Mark Webber will have one second added to his fastest qualifying time today, as penalty for ignoring yellow flags in yesterday's free practice session.

The stewards of the European Grand Prix said in a statement today the Australian had ignored yellow flags that were waved while Felipe Massa's Sauber car was being removed from the track.

"After hearing the driver and the Competitor's representative, the stewards viewed the video evidence," the statement said. "It is clear that car no 12 Felipe Massa stopped after marshal post 32 which immediately waved double yellow flags. Marshal post no 31 waved a single yellow at the same time. Marshal post no 29 also waved a single yellow which - according to a statement made in the drivers' briefing - was not visible to all drivers.

"According to the driver Mark Webber, the distance between Marshal Post no 31 and the incident is too short to be of relevance. Moreover, the sector is a long one and this further reduces the significance of the time lost due to the reduction of speed. The distance is estimated to be approximately 200 metres and Article 4.1.2 b) of Appendix H is quite clear on the use of yellow flags."

The statement concluded by saying the stewards found Webber to be in breach of the FIA's 2004 regulations and have therefore decided to impose "a time penalty of one second to be added to the driver's lap time in the qualifying session."

Curiously, Jaguar's third driver Bjorn Wirdheim was also investigated by the stewards for a similar offence - the Swede ignored yellow flags at exactly the same location as Webber. In Wirdheim's case, the stewards decided to reprimand him - which means that if he gets another reprimand this season, he will be banned from one race weekend.

Webber is the fourth driver to face a penalty in qualifying today: Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, of Sauber, and Minardi pair Zsolt Baumgartner and Gianmaria Bruni will all drop 10 places on the grid after changing their engines yesterday.