[Racer Duck]

Heikki Kovalainen will move five places down the French grand prix grid. The McLaren driver qualified sixth at the Magny-Cours circuit on Saturday, but stewards adjudged that he should be penalized for traveling too slowly on an in-lap and holding up Mark Webber.

The five place penalty puts Kovalainen, a Finn, eleventh on the grid, two places ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was penalized for his Montreal crash two weeks ago.

Both McLaren drivers were penalized for a similar infringement at the close of qualifying in Malaysia earlier this year.

Despite playing down rumors of a driver strike over the issue of exorbitant FIA fees when he finally arrived, world champion Kimi Raikkonen received a 5000 euro fine from the governing body for being late to Thursday's official press conference at Magny-Cours.


Also with lighter wallets at the scene of the French grand prix are local driver Sebastien Bourdais, who was fined 2,400 euros for pitlane speeding, and Williams' Kazuki Nakajima (400 euros).


Source: Paddock Talk