Lewis Hamilton accepts more punishment

The McLaren driver accepted the blame for falling foul of officials during practice at the Buddh International Circuit in New Delhi, 24 hours after admitting it was tough to keep his focus after splitting from his girlfriend of four years, Nicole Scherzinger.

Hamilton was given a three-place penalty on the grid for Sunday's race after ignoring double waved yellow flags, along with Sauber's Sergio Perez, while Pastor Maldonado's Williams was being recovered following a spin.

Marshals were close to the track at the time as Hamilton and Perez flashed past en route to setting their fastest laps of the opening session.

Hamilton ended up with the quickest time of 1min 26.836sec, beating world champion Sebastian Vettel's lap by more than half a second.

The 26-year-old then learned of his punishment and said: "I went in there [to see the stewards] and I put my hands up. I said, 'I accept whatever penalty I get'. That's what I said, and they gave me one. I don't really have any feelings towards the penalty. I'm a bit frustrated with myself. It's my fault - as usual. So I just have to do whatever I can from wherever I qualify tomorrow."

The incident was the latest in a controversial season for the 2008 world champion:
Malaysian Grand Prix: receives a drive-through penalty after making more than one change of direction to defend a position. The extra 20 seconds sees him drop from seventh to eighth.

Monaco Grand Prix: gets two drive‑through penalties after incidents with Felipe Massa and Maldonado. The Briton, who finishes sixth, describes his visit to the stewards as "an absolute frickin' joke", and jokingly suggests that "maybe it's because I'm black" he is being picked on. He later apologises to the stewards and also via letter to FIA president Jean Todt.

Hungarian Grand Prix: while leading on lap 47, a change in conditions sees Hamilton spin, only to straighten his car into oncoming traffic, almost colliding with Force India's Paul di Resta. He receives another drive-through penalty and eventually finishes fourth.

Belgian Grand Prix: during qualifying Hamilton again clashes with Maldonado, initially banging wheels with the Williams car. Stewards reprimand the Briton.

Singapore Grand Prix: after a minor brush with Massa in qualifying, the duo collide again on lap 12 of the race, with Hamilton losing part of his front wing as he runs into the right-rear of the Ferrari causing a puncture. Unsurprisingly he receives another drive-through penalty, his fifth of the year. After the race, Massa confronts Hamilton but the Briton brushes the Brazilian off.

Hamilton managed to stay out of trouble during the second session, when he finished fourth, while Massa surprisingly ended today on top. The Ferrari driver's time of 1min, 25.706sec just edged Red Bull's Vettel into second. Jenson Button, in the McLaren, was sixth.

Many of the drivers' cars and helmets today carried the logos and numbers of Briton Dan Wheldon and Italian MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli, who died in accidents over the last fortnight. Wheldon was killed during a 15-car pile up at an IndyCar race in Las Vegas while Simoncelli died when he fell and was struck by other bikes at the Malaysian Grand Prix last Sunday.