Maldonado penalised again

Pastor Maldonado has received yet another penalty from Formula race stewards.

The latest slap across the knuckles for the haphazard Venezuelan comes following qualifying for this afternoons Belgium Grand Prix.

The race stewards decided to imposed a three-place grid penalty for blocking Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying.

The incident took place during Q1 and was the latest in a number of penalties for a single driver in a Formula One season.

In Monaco he was given a 10-place grid penalty for deliberately crashing into Sauber's Sergio Perez, after the European Grand Prix he was given a post-race time penalty which cost him one world championship point for crashing into McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, following the race at Silverstone, where he again crashed into Perez he was given a 10,000 euro fine and a reprimand, whilst during the Hungarian Grand Prix he was handed a drive-through penalty for his collision with Force India's Paul di Resta.

Once you add in the three penalties he has also received for gear box changes, Maldonado's penalties tally has now reached eight.

When you consider in affect it was a double penalty following the British Grand Prix he has in fact received nine penalties, so far this season.

Nico Rosberg will take a five-place grid penalty after requiring a gearbox change.

Sebastian Vettel has been fined €10,000 for doing a practice start in the pitlane in final practice.

Provisional grid after penalties

1. Jenson Button

2. Kamui Kobayashi

3. Kimi Raikkonen

4. Sergio Perez

5. Fernando Alonso

6. Pastor Maldonado

7. Lewis Hamilton

8. Romain Grosjean

9. Paul di Resta

10. Sebastian Vettel

11. Nico Hulkenberg

12. Mark Webber

13. Michael Schumacher

14. Felipe Massa

15. Jean-Eric Vergne

16. Daniel Ricciardo

17. Bruno Senna

18. Heikki Kovalainen

19. Vitaly Petrov

20. Timo Glock

21. Pedro de la Rosa

22. Charles Pic

23. Nico Rosberg

24. Narain Karthikeyan