Greater Noida: The Williams Formula One team were fined 60,000 euros for the second race in a row on Friday for the same offence of failing to secure a wheel on Pastor Maldonado's car during practice.
In Japan two weeks ago, the rear left wheel came off the Venezuelan's car and bounced across the track. In India on Friday, the front right wheel fastener came off but the wheel stayed on.
Maldonado nursed the car with its wobbly wheel back to the pitlane entrance before stopping. "Whilst the stewards accept that improvements to the wheel retaining system had been implemented, the team need to ensure that both the wheel and its fastener are fully retained on the car," stewards said in a statement.
They decided that the 60,000 euro fine was still the most appropriate penalty, despite the wheel not coming off, because it was the second offence.
Formula One introduced a secondary retainer mechanism after a television cameraman was hit by a wheel that came off Australian Mark Webber's Red Bull and bounced down the pitlane during a German Grand Prix pitstop in July.
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