Heidfeld was doing good till 22nd lap where Mclaren's Hekki kovalainen hit a tyrewall and a safety car had to be employed.According to this new rule the pit lane is closed for the first few laps of any Safety Car period and any driver who pits during the period receives a 10 second stop-and-go penalty.Unfortunately the crash happened to be just before Heidfeld's first pit stop.He had to choose between running out of fuel and getting a penalty.He choose to pit and refuel and got a ten second penalty and then dropped to back.He says in his website that his engineer asked him to pit but by then he had passed the pit entry and then safety car was deployed and the pit lane was closed and he had his race messed up for no mistake of his.

"For weeks we have talked and tried to find a better solution. Luck or bad luck should not play a role in Formula One. But right now this rule exists and therefore it was logical that I had to serve a stop-and-go penalty." says Heidfeld.He also said "i always thought that this rule was stupid".