Fisichella gets 3 grid penalty for Turkish GP

Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella was slapped a three-place grid penalty for exiting the pits under a red light.

Force India received a jolt ahead of Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix with Giancarlo Fisichella copping a three-place grid penalty for exiting the pits under a red light in the first practice session.

The infraction occurred at the very start of Friday’s opening practice session, in which the Italian was among the first to take to the track for an initial installation lap.

The stewards’ decision means three places will be added to whatever position Fisichella achieves in Saturday’s qualifying session.

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In Friday’s morning session, Fisichella posted the 15th fastest time, just behind teammate Adrian Sutil. In the afternoon, Fisichella went one place better, while Sutil finished 20th.

In the morning, both the drivers completed 23 laps but Fisichella was just seconds early in exiting the pit lane at the start of the session – crossing the line just a fraction before the red light – and was handed the three-place penalty.

The Italian, however, was still happy with the timing in the practice sessions.

“This morning I was really struggling with the balance and with the grip on the circuit, but then we made a few changes on the car and it felt much better, much more consistent so I think it was a good afternoon,” he said.

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Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne said it was a reasonably productive day with a couple of difficulties.

“As expected, we struggled with the relatively low grip of the circuit and found it difficult to get the tyres working correctly. With Adrian we had a clutch problem in the afternoon session that curtailed his running, but Giancarlo completed his planned programme,” he said.