Felipe Massa and Esteban Gutierrez demoted three grid places for the Spanish GP

Both Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber have been handed three-place grid penalties for blocking during qualifying for the Spanish GP.

The Brazilian, who had been set to line up sixth on the grid, has been demoted to ninth after stewards adjudged him to have impeded Mark Webber during Q2 of Saturday's session.

Speaking to reporters directly after visiting the stewards to explain his side of the incident, but prior to the FIA's official action, the Brazilian had been adamant that no penalty was warranted.

"To be honest, I don't expect to see a penalty for me," Massa said.

"He was on the old tyres at that time. Nobody who got out on the old tyres passed to Q3 and so he's supposed to stop and put on the new tyres anyway. And when he put on new tyres he went faster with his tyres so I don't think I earned any penalty for this qualifying. Zero."

Gutierrez's offence, which occurred during Q1, saw him block Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen through the final sector of the lap and was condemned during commentary as "unacceptable" by Sky F1's Anthony Davidson. The young Mexican has endured an ignominious start to his F1 career and is still yet to score a point.

As a result of the penalties, Romain Grosjean, Webber and Perez have all been promoted a place inside the top ten, while so too have Williams duo Valtteri Bottas, Pastor Maldonado and Giedo van der Garde at the back of the grid with the beleaguered Gutierrez demoted to 19th.