Schumacher & Raikkonen avoid penalties

The race stewards at Valencia for Sunday's European Grand Prix may well have handed out penalties to a number of drivers, but some were spared following further investigations.

Williams' Pastor Maldonado, Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne and Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi were all awarded penalties following the race, Maldonado was given a post-race 20 second penalty which resulted in him losing tenth place, Vergne was given a ten place grid penalty for Silverstone and Kobayashi was handed a five place penalty, also for the British Grand Prix.

But seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher and 1997 Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen escaped punishment.

Both drivers were investigated by the stewards for incidents under yellow flags.

Schumacher was seen using his DRS during a section of the track that was under the yellow flag, this means that drivers are suppose to be clearly showing an attempt to slow down. Using his DRS was seen by some in the paddock that he was clearly still racing as pointed out by the Red Bull of Mark Webber who was following him.

But after the race, the stewards decided that the German Mercedes driver had significantly slowed during the sector in question.

'The stewards considered a report that driver #7 used his DRS in a yellow flag zone and that his allegedly constituted a breach of yellow flag regulations,'

'Having examined telemetry and video evidence, and heard from the driver and team representatives, the stewards noted that the driver did make a significant reduction in speed on entering the double waved flag zone.' a statement from the stewards said as quoted by Autosport Magazine.

Kimi Raikkonen was accused over completing an overtaking manoeuvre under a yellow flag which of course is illegal under any motor sport regulations.

But the Lotus driver was deemed to have begun the move before the section of the track which was under yellow flag after further analysis.

'The stewards did see that Kimi Raikkonen overtook under the yellows - or could possibly have done - but when they looked at it they said he made the move before he got to the first yellow flags Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle said while discussing the incident.

With neither driver receiving penalties the Valencia podium remains unchanged.