No penalty for fifth-placed Rosberg

Brawn will have to wait at least another two weeks to clinch the constructors’ championship after stewards decided not to penalise Nico Rosberg after he finished a controversial fifth in the Japanese Grand Prix.


Jenson Button – who along with team-mate Rubens Barrichello had been in a battle with the Williams driver over the three final points places in the closing stages - had been adamant after the race that Rosberg had not slowed down on his way to his final pit stop while the rest of the field was running at a controlled speed following the late deployment of the safety car.


Rosberg re-emerged from the stop in fifth, meaning Brawn’s seventh and eighth place finishes left it one point short of the total it needed to wrap up the constructors’ crown at Suzuka.


After the race director informed the stewards that Rosberg had clocked a speed that was over the limit, the driver and Williams technical director Sam Michael were duly summoned after the race to the explain the incident, with the stewards subsequently spending several hours studying telemetry and timing data, along with video evidence to see if a penalty was warranted.


However, they discovered that Rosberg hadn’t been able to see the ‘time delta’ that indicates what speed he should be going at as it had been overridden by a ‘low fuel’ message on his dash.

The stewards said telemetry data nevertheless proved that the German driver had driven at a safe speed back to the pits and were therefore happy that no further action was needed.

“The Race Director reported to the Stewards that Car No 16, Nico Rosberg exceeded the time delta from when the "Safety Deployed" message was displayed until crossing the Safety Car line,” a stewards statement read.

“The Stewards met with the driver and the team representatives and considered the telemetry data, GPS records, timekeeping and video evidence.

“This evidence showed a "low fuel" message on the drivers display had overridden the time delta information preventing the driver from being able to accurately follow the timing information.

“However the telemetry data shows that the driver from a safety point of view had reacted adequately to the yellow flags and safety car boards.

“In view of this the Stewards intend to take no further action.”

Brawn’s confirmed seven-eight finish therefore means it needs a single point in Brazil to beat Red Bull to the constructors’ title with a race to spare, the Brackley-based squad 35.5 points ahead of its rival with just 36 up for grabs.