Hamilton penalised in qualifying

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The incident occurred when both drivers slowed down after crossing the line with seconds left of qualifying. By remaining on the racing line, they were adjudged to have impeded Heidfeld and Alonso, who were starting their final flying laps.

Hamilton will now begin the 56-lap race from ninth place, while Kovalainen will start in eighth after the pair initially qualified fourth and third respectively.

The pair were asked to report to stewards after an angry Heidfeld, who qualified seventh, complained to race officials at the conclusion of the session.

Hamilton was subsequently found guilty of impeding the BMW Sauber driver by 'travelling at a very slow speed on the racing line', while Kovalainen was also charged with committing the same offence against the German and Renault driver Alonso.

But Hamilton felt he was not at fault although he did apologise to Heidfeld.

"I was pretty much out of the way," he said upon emerging from the meeting. "If I held him up then I apologise for that."

McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh also defended both drivers, insisting they did the best they could under the circumstances.

"There was clearly an issue there and it's unfortunate," he said. "If you look at the footage, our guys squeezed in as much as they could and slowed and we don't think they impaired Nick."

Felipe Massa will head an all-Ferrari front row after the Brazilian took pole position. Massa's time of one minute 35.748 seconds beat Kimi Raikkonen by nearly half a second.