Bourdais Gets Penalty: Lewis Hamilton's Lead Over Felipe Massa Is Reduced

Sebastian Bourdais has been handed a 25-second time-penalty in light of his close cut battle with Brazilian Felipe Massa.

The Frenchman tangled with Massa on lap 51, when he emerged from his second pit stop at the same time as the Ferrari driver turned in to the first corner.  Bourdais took the inside line, and both cars touched on the apex of corner one resulting in Massa's Ferrari spinning.

Because of the close finishing times between the top ten, the penalty see's the French, Scuderia Torro Rosso driver drop from sixth, to tenth meaning that eighth place finished, Massa is promoted to seventh, Bourdais' team mate Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber, move up to sixth and eighth respectively.

The promotion see's Massa have another point added to his championship standings and the gap between himself and Hamilton is now just five points.

The Revised Standings of the Fuji TV 2008 Japanese Grand-Prix are as follows:

1.  ALONSO        Renault

2.  KUBICA        BMW           +5.2s

3.  RAIKKONEN     Ferrari       +6.4s

4.  PIQUET        Renault       +20.5s

5.  TRULLI        Toyota        +23.7s

6.  VETTEL        Toro Rosso    +39.2s

7.  MASSA         Ferrari       +46.1s

8.  WEBBER        Red Bull      +50.8s

9.  HEIDFELD      BMW           +54.1s

10. BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso    +59.0s*
11. ROSBERG       Williams      +62.0s

12. HAMILTON      McLaren       +78.9s

13. BARRICHELLO   Honda         +1 lap

14. BUTTON        Honda         +1 lap

15. NAKAJIMA      Williams      +1 lap

R.  FISICHELLA    Force India   +46 laps

R.  KOVALAINEN    McLaren       +51 laps

R.  SUTIL         Force India   +59 laps

R.  GLOCK         Toyota        +61 laps

R.  COULTHARD     Red Bull      +67 laps

Times Taken from ITV-F1