Alonso to pay time penalty

MOTOR SPORT/Hungarian Grand Prix: Race stewards punished Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso for dangerous driving yesterday with a time penalty that severely dented his Hungarian Grand Prix hopes.They said in a statement the Renault driver would have two seconds added to his fastest lap in each stage of today's qualifying

Grid position is crucial at the Hungaroring, a slow and twisty circuit where overtaking is rare.

Four of the last five winners have been from pole position.

Alonso leads Ferrari's Michael Schumacher by 11 points in the championship with six races remaining, including tomorrow's.

The three stewards summoned the 25-year-old Spaniard after an incident with Red Bull's Dutch driver Robert Doornbos in the afternoon free practice session.

They found Alonso had made hand gestures at Doornbos and veered his car off the normal racing line towards the Dutchman on the pit straight.

A one-second penalty will be added to his fastest lap times in each of the three part qualifying, with another second added for overtaking under yellow warning flags at the end of the same session.

Renault ruled out an appeal.

The penalty is likely to leave Alonso struggling to make the final top-10 cut in qualifying and hands Schumacher, winner of the last three races and four times triumphant in Hungary, a hefty advantage. Alonso had been second fastest in the afternoon session, 1.319 seconds slower than Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, last year's runaway winner at the Hungaroring, set the day's quickest lap of one minute 21.624 seconds in the morning. But the Finn was only 25th quickest of the 27 drivers in the afternoon.