Grosjean, Verstappen and Maldonado promoted in updated result
Monday 16 November 2015 09:43, UK
Felipe Massa has been excluded from the Brazilian GP after his tyres were found to breach temperature limits before the race.
The Williams driver finished his home race in eighth, but has been disqualified for exceeding the revised parameters to ensure tyre safety introduced at the Italian GP by Pirelli following Sebastian Vettel's blow-out at Spa. The Grove-based team are expected to appeal the ruling.
The exclusion of Massa moves Lotus' Romain Grosjean up to eighth, Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen to ninth and the second Lotus of Pastor Maldonado into the points in 10th.
That means the Enstone-based team gain a further two points over Toro Rosso in the fight for sixth in the Constructors' Championship.
'On the grid the tread temperature and minimum tyre starting pressure of the right hand side rear tyre was checked on car number 19 after the "5-minutes" signal was given,' read an FIA Technical Report issued 24 minutes into Sunday's race.
'The temperature measured on the tread of the right hand side rear tyre of car number 19 was 137c, 27c above the maximum tread temperature of 110 °C allowed by the official tyre supplier. The corresponding tyre pressure at 137c was 20.6 psi, 0.1 psi above the minimum starting pressure'.
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The issue was referred to the stewards for consideration who decided Massa's car was in 'breach of Article 12.5.1 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations, Article 3.2 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations and Article 12.11.i of the FIA International Sporting Code' and excluded the Brazilian from the race results.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race and before his disqualification had been announced Massa said: "I have no idea what has happened. Everything I did was the same as other races. With the pace I had I don't believe anything was different."
Despite losing four constructors' championship points due to Massa's disqualification, Valtteri Bottas' fifth place was still enough for Williams to secure third in the standings this year with one race to spare.
At September's Italian GP, the rear tyre pressures on both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's Mercedes cars were found to be under the minimums set by Pirelli. However, Hamilton's victory stood after three hours of deliberations by the stewards.
Updated Brazilian GP top 10
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 71 laps
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +7.7
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, +14.2
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, +47.5
5. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, +1 lap
6. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, +1 lap
7. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, +1 lap
8. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, +1 lap
9. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, +1 lap
10. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, +1 lap
Don't miss the F1 Midweek Report for analysis of the Brazilian GP and all the latest F1 news. NBC's F1 reporter Will Buxton and journalist Peter Windsor join Natalie Pinkham on Sky Sports F1 at 8:30pm on Wednesday.
