Following their investigation, the Race Stewards have given Jarno Trulli a 25s penalty, thereby demoting him to twelfth position.

The Italian is adjudged to have breached Article 40.8 of the 2009 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, namely overtaking during the Safety Car period.

This would normally incur a stop/go penalty, however, since the even occurred during the last five laps of the race, 25s were added to Trulli's elapsed time.

The Japanese team subsequently announced that it will appeal the decision.

"When the safety car came out towards the end of the race Lewis Hamilton passed me," said Trulli, "but soon after he suddenly slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. I thought he had a problem so I overtook him as there was nothing else I could do."

"Already we were disappointed to be starting from the pit lane after we were informed about the problem with our rear wing," added Team Principal, Tadashi Yamashina. "We responded to that in a fantastic way and we showed that our car has genuine performance. It's sad that this result has been questioned but we have filed an appeal to give us more time to study the data and the situation."

In a separate decision, Sebastian Vettel has been given a ten-place grid penalty in Malaysia for causing a collision and forcing a driver (Robert Kubica) off the track, a breach of Article 16.1 of the 2009 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

Furthermore, the German's team has been fined $50,000 for telling Vettel to remain out on the track when the car was clearly damaged, a breach of Article 30.13 of the 2009 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

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