Adrian Sutil has been demoted three places on the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix after race stewards decided he blocked Red Bull’s Mark Webber during qualifying today.

Webber was in the latter stages of a flying lap near the close of Q1 when he came upon Sutil, who was travelling more slowly. The Australian, who subsequently failed to make it through to Q2, felt that the German had severely hindered his progress.

“I don’t usually get caught out with that problem and that was the worst place to get nailed, as it wrecked both my flying laps,” said Webber. “I had nowhere to go in the last corner of my first lap and then Sutil slip-streamed past me for the start of my second, so it was a disaster. Q1 is the worst session to have had that problem, as now we’re at the back for tomorrow - my race is screwed.”

Following the session, Sutil was very apologetic: “I was just trying to make a gap to Alonso to start my lap and Mark came in on a flying lap, but I didn't know that. I just tried to stay in my position to get a clear start to the lap. It was a misunderstanding and I apologised to Mark after the end of the session.”