Istanbul: Force India received a jolt ahead of Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix with Giancarlo Fisichella copping a three-place grid penalty for exiting the pits under a red light in the first practice session.

The infraction occurred at the very start of Friday’s opening practice session. The stewards’ decision means three places will be added to whatever position Fisichella achieves in Saturday’s qualifying session.

In the morning, Fisichella posted the 15th fastest time, just behind teammate Adrian Sutil. In the afternoon, Fisichella went one place better, while Sutil finished 20th.

Both drivers completed 23 laps but Fisichella was just seconds early in exiting the pit lane at the start of the session — crossing the line1 just a fraction before the red light — and was handed the three-place penalty.

The Italian, however, was still happy with the timing in the practice sessions.

“This morning I was really struggling with the balance and with the grip on the circuit, but then we made a few changes on the car and it felt much better, much more consistent so I think it was a good afternoon,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ferrari led both practice sessions and Heikki Kovalainen rebounded from a violent crash in Spain with the second fastest lap time of the morning session.

Two-time defending champion Felipe Massa led Ferrari in the first session with a time of 1:27.323 seconds — the fastest time of the day — before Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a gearbox problem that left him last in the morning session for an afternoon’s best time of 1:27.543.

Kovalainen, who finished fifth in the second session, trailed Massa by just over one-tenth of a second while McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton was second fastest in the afternoon. (AGENCIES)