The stewards in Melbourne have declared the diffusers being used on the Williams, Toyota and Brawn cars legal.

Earlier today, three teams lodged protests claiming that the diffusers on the three cars were illegal.

Following the decision by the stewards, the three teams - Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull have a limited amount of time in which to appeal the decision. BMW also protested the diffuser but the German team's protest was dismissed as it had missed the deadline.

The teams subsequently confirmed that they will appeal the stewards decision, which will be heard by the FIA’s International Court of Appeal, most likely in the week between the Malaysia and Bahrain events.

Reacting to the stewards decision, Toyota Motorsport Chairman Tadashi Yamashina said: "We are pleased with the decision of the race stewards but we prefer not to comment further on the situation.

"This weekend promises to be tremendously exciting so we are now looking forward to starting the competition on track with the first practice sessions on Friday."

The team added: "Toyota Motorsport has studied the wording of the new 2009 regulations in precise detail to ensure that we have interpreted them correctly."

”We are pleased with the stewards decision and we have no further comment to make,” added Williams' Technical Director Sam Michael.