Vergne and Maldonado penalised, Schumacher not
Following various incidents during the European GP at Valencia, the stewards have decided to penalise Vergne and Maldonado. At the same time, Michael Schumacher who has used DRS during a yellow flag situation is not penalised and can keep his third place finish.
Vergne in fact received a double penalty as the stewards considered his collision with Heikki Kovalainen severe enough to warrant that: "In accordance with Article 18.1 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, a drop of ten grid positions at the next race plus a fine of € 25,000. In view of the serious nature of the incident the Stewards have decided under Article 18.1 to apply two penalties."
Pastor Maldonado on the other hand collided with Lewis Hamilton while he himself was running off the track on the outside of Lewis Hamilton: "Drive Through Penalty, imposed after the race in accordance with Article 16.3 as he was unable to rejoin the track in a safe manner (20 seconds added to the elapsed race time)"
Contrary to these penalties, Michael Schumacher was deemed innocent for using DRS during the yellow flag zone: "The Stewards considered a report that driver 7 used his DRS in a yellow flag zone and that this allegedly constituted a breach of Yellow Flag regulations (Appendix H Article 2.4.5.1(b)). Having examined telemetry and video evidence, and heard from the driver and team representatives, the Stewards noted that the driver did make a significant reduction in speed on entering the double waved flag zone."
