Hulkenberg hit with 20 second penalty

The result of the F1 2010 Singapore Grand Prix has been revised again, after Williams man Nico Hulkenberg was handed a 20-second penalty.

Hulkenberg was punished after it was found he left the track on lap 1 and gained an unfair advantage. The issue came to the attention of the stewards after the Force India F1 team launched a protest.

Earlier FIF1's Adrian Sutil had been penalised post-race for cutting turn 7 on the opening lap. Initially that dropped him to tenth. However with Hulkenberg now getting a penalty for a similar offence that re-gigs the order with Felipe Massa in P8, Sutil in P9 and Nico in P10.

Force India lodged a protest as the team is engaged in a close battle with Williams for sixth place in the constructors'. After Sutil's penalty the two would have been level on 59 points going to Japan, but now FIF1 regains outright sixth place and will go to round 16 in two weeks time 4 points ahead.

A statement from the FIA read:

"The stewards, having received a protest from the Force India F1 Team alleging that on lap 1, car 10 [Hulkenberg] left the track and rejoined gaining an advantage, have considered the matter and having examined video evidence and telemetry, decide to uphold the protest and determine a breach of the regulations has been committed.

"[As such] a drive-through penalty is imposed after the end of the race, therefore 20 seconds will be added to the elapsed time of car 10. The protest fee is returned to Force India F1 Team."

Force India team principal and chairman, Dr Vijay Mallya added: "Naturally I'm very disappointed to lose eighth position but we minimised the loss when Hulkenberg was awarded the same penalty.

"Onwards and upwards to Suzuka now where we hope to add even more points to our total."