Japan: Penalties for Barrichello and Button & Revised Grid

Team boss Ross Brawn accepted the driver’s had not slowed before seeing the stewards, saying “No, they swerved to avoid the problem. But they didn't lift off, no.”

Following the stewards meeting, the decision to apply a penalty was made, dropping the drivers back five places. “We have learnt this evening that Rubens and Jenson have been penalised with five-place grid penalties for failing to reduce their speed under the yellow flag in Q2,” said Brawn. “We acknowledge and respect the decision of the stewards and will do our best to have a good race tomorrow.”

Also penalised for the same reason were Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Force India’s Adrian Sutil, while Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi was punished for driving a damaged car back to the pits and impeding other drivers.

McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen takes a five place penalty for changing his gearbox, as does Vitantonio Liuzzi in his Force India. Toyota driver Timo Glock and Red Bull’s Mark Webber also take penalties for starting the race tomorrow with a new chassis following accidents on today.

The net result of all these penalties for Brawn GP is that Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, originally qualifying fifth and seventh will start in ninth and 11th.

The revised grid should look like this for tomorrow's race, but the FIA will announce the final grid at 10am tomorrow, or 2am in the UK...