McLaren-Mercedes number two driver,
Heikki Kovalainen has been penalised by the stewards after he was judged to have impeded
Mark Webber during qualifying for the French Grand Prix.
Kovalainen had been sixth fastest in Q3 after setting a time of 1 minute 16.944 seconds and was promoted to fifth due to
Lewis Hamilton's grid penalty that he received in Montreal two weeks ago.
However Heikki later received a five-place grid penalty, which means he will now start tenth on Sunday at Magny Cours.
Speaking after qualifying, Kovalainen noted that he should still be able to get points despite the handicap.
"The traffic meant I couldn't put together a clean opening lap in Q1, so we did a second run just to make certain. For Q2, I found a good balance with my car and felt more confident going into the final session," he reflected.
"I didn't feel any problems throughout today's sessions, but minor things prevented me from being quicker in Q1 and Q2. Owing to the penalty I was given following the mix-up with two other cars, I will start 10th; not ideal, but it's perfectly possible to score points from there and that's what I intend to do."
McLaren-Mercedes boss Ron Dennis meanwhile has confirmed that the team won't be appealing the decision.
"Heikki is in a pretty good position, despite his penalty. Again, it was one of those things: he and [Kazuki] Nakajima tried to stay out of Webber's way, but in their efforts to do so there was a bit of positional confusion and nowhere left for him to go," added Dennis.
"The result was that he compromised both his own and Mark's laps. We have no objection to his penalty, and look forward to an exciting and challenging day tomorrow."
