Hamilton stripped of third place

FIA has announced that McLaren's Lewis Hamilton has lost the third position he won at last weekend's Australian GP.

Hamilton and McLaren have been disqualified after race stewards decided that the reigning world champion had deliberately misled them when providing evidence about an incident that saw him passed by Jarno Trulli during a safety car period.

The Italian was handed a 25-second penalty following the incident on lap 57 at Melbourne, which relegated him from third to 12th in the final classification and saw Hamilton promoted from fourth to third.

But both drivers were called before the stewards in Sepang today to address new evidence on the incident.

Following the hearing, the stewards decided to reinstate Trulli's third place and to sanction Hamilton and McLaren by excluding them from the race classification.

They explained their decision in a statement, which read: "The stewards having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Formula One Grand Prix, consider that driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009, a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

"Under Article 158 of the International Sporting Code the driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are excluded from the race classification for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the classification is amended accordingly."

McLaren have decided not to appeal the decision although team principal Martin Whitmarsh was not pleased with the stewards' decision

"Obviously we are disappointed by what happened but in the circumstances, we are not going to appeal," he said.

"As we see it, during the closing stages of the race under difficult conditions, there was a safety car incident where Trulli fell off the circuit and Lewis legitimately passed.

"Lewis didn't do anything abnormal and it was clear Trulli shouldn't have passed him.

"But we have to accept the decision."

It has been suggested that the FIA arrived at the decision because McLaren withheld information about a radio conversation that took place between Hamilton and the pit during the course of the incident.

"What I understand is that there's a belief that the team was not explicit enough in terms of the content of the radio conversations," Whitmarsh continued.

"We don't believe that those radio conversations had an effect on the fact that he was passed by Trulli under a safety car period.

"The problem is that the stewards believe that the team was not explicit enough in releasing that information. We don't think that affected the outcome of their (original) decision.

"I believe that it was a harsh decision. I think the facts of the case are that Lewis made a legitimate pass and subsequently was re-passed.

"We felt that the decision of the stewards in the immediate aftermath of the race was fair but the stewards now believe that the radio conversation - that was listened to and heard by the FIA - because it was not sufficiently contained in the submission that we made and that we withheld that was the reason that they came to their decision today.

"As you would imagine Lewis is extremely disappointed.

"It's a harsh decision but I think that experience has told us that you have to accept these decisions and these things that come along and you focus on the this weekend and the races beyond that."