Lewis Hamilton says that the three-place grid penalty he received for ignoring yellow flags during first practice for the Indian Grand Prix will make his race "very tough".
Hamilton set the fastest lap of the session on the final lap when the track appeared to be clear after Pastor Maldonado had stopped in the final sector. The timing screens said the circuit was clear, but yellow flags were still waving on the run down to the final corner, and Hamilton said that he understood why he had been penalised, but that it would impact on his race.
"Same old same old!" Hamilton said. "I'd engaged the DRS when the yellow flags were out and you're not allowed to... It's not good for the weekend. It doesn't look like we're the quickest at the moment so wherever we qualify, three places further back from there is going to make our race very tough for us. But it's not impossible, the race is very long, we've got two DRS zones so overtaking is possible, so we'll have to wait and see tomorrow just how quick we are."
Hamilton said that it would be difficult to follow another car closely through the second half of the circuit, but that the DRS should help him make up the ground he will lose.
"I think there's quite a good opportunity to overtake. It's a high downforce circuit in terms of it being very hard to follow, but with the DRS I think it'll make it more possible ... The tyres seem to be fine. I didn't really get much of a run on the long run but I think Jenson seemed to be fine with it so I think we should be OK with the tyres."
