Hamilton penalised for impending

Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen have been penalised for impeding rivals in qualifying ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Kovalainen and Hamilton will start eighth and ninth on the grid after collecting five place penalties.

Stewards had summoned the pair on Saturday after complaints from Renault's Fernando Alonso and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.

A McLaren spokesman confirmed the penalty, which came after the stewards had deliberated for several hours at the Sepang circuit, and said McLaren would not appeal.

Heidfeld, who moves up from seventh to fifth, and Alonso, now eighth, both said they were held up at the end of the third and final session.

They were still on quick laps while others were slowing down to save fuel.

Alonso, the double world champion who drove for McLaren last year but fell out with management and Hamilton before returning to Renault, spoke to stewards before the McLaren drivers were heard.

"I could have done better in Q3 this afternoon as I was with Heidfeld on a fast lap while the others were going slowly, and that affected me a bit, which is a shame," he said in a team review of qualifying.

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said there had been no deliberate intent to hold anyone up.

"Neither of our drivers did it intentionally. They did all they could to squeeze over to allow Nick and Fernando to do their quick laps," he said.

"We informed our drivers that there were people trying to do their flying laps. There was congestion at one part of the circuit with six cars trying to go into one corner."

Felipe Massa will head an all-Ferrari front row after the Brazilian took pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The penalty comes after Hamilton initially qualified fourth on the grid after his time of 1 minute 36.709 seconds.

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