Pastor Maldonado has been hit with a ten-place grid penalty for the Monaco GP for causing a collision with Sergio Perez in final practice.
Maldonado clashed with Perez as they went through Portier, the corner before the entry to the tunnel, and appeared to deliberately cut across the nose of the Mexican's Sauber.
Perez reported the incident to his team over the in-car radio, claiming: "Maldonado is crazy."
Maldonado blamed cold tyres and understeer for the incident.
"I had a lot of oversteer, on cold tyres, and was trying to recover the car when I touched Perez" he told Sky Sports. "It was a small touch.
"The stewards just directly said it was ten-place penalty. I was just trying to do my best."
Maldonado's woes, though, did not stop with the Perez incident as on the very next lap he hit the barrier on entry into Casino Square and brought out the red flags.
His team worked furiously to fix the car and the Spanish GP winner was back out on track for qualifying where he posted the ninth best time. However, in light of his penalty will drop to P19.
"Tomorrow will be a tough one," the 26-year-old said. "I think we need to attack from the beginning.
"This is not the Monaco from many years ago; now, with DRS and KERS, you can attack. It's going to be very difficult but we do have good pace for tomorrow."
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