Gutierrez given grid penalty for FP3 blocking

Esteban Gutierrez has been handed a five-place grid penalty for blocking Pascal Wehrlein during FP3 at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Wehrlein was on a flying lap and came up behind Gutierrez on the exit of Radillon, heading towards the Kemmel Straight. The Haas driver was on an out lap in the middle of the track and closed off the racing line, with Wehrlein having to take to the grass on the inside of the right-hand kink at the start of the straight.

Wehrlein immediately took to the radio to complain to his team, saying:"F***ing idiot, what is he doing?" before later adding his belief Gutierrez should be penalised for the incident.

The stewards agreed with Wehrlein following an investigation ahead of qualifying, handing Gutierrez a five-place grid penalty and three penalty points. The penalty will be applied after qualifying, with Gutierrez joining Lewis Hamilton (55 places), Fernando Alonso (35 places) and Marcus Ericsson (10 places) in having a penalty this weekend.

Gutierrez has been criticised by a number of drivers for ignoring blue flags in recent races, with both Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo unhappy with his driving in Hungary and Germany respectively.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.