McLaren likely to face F1 inquiry

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The McLaren team are expected to face disciplinary charges after being found guilty of misleading race stewards following the Australian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton and the team have already been stripped of their points from the race and the Englishman has issued an emotional public apology.

But BBC Sport has learned governing body the FIA is poised to order them to officially account for their actions.

A spokesman said the FIA was awaiting a report from its race observer.

It is understood that is expected imminently, and any further developments should become clear by Wednesday.

It is expected McLaren will be called before a meeting of the FIA World Council - but that this is unlikely to be scheduled before the Bahrain Grand Prix, the fourth race of the season, later this month.

The World Council is the body which disqualified McLaren from the constructors' championship and fined them $100m (£67m) for their role in a spy scandal involving Ferrari in 2007.

There is no limit to the action it could take in this instance if it deemed it serious enough.

Hamilton himself is expected to escape further censure.The world champion has said he was ordered to give misleading evidence by sporting director Dave Ryan, who was with him at the hearings.

Ryan, who has worked for McLaren for 35 years, has been suspended by team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

The two were found guilty of "providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards".

Hamilton finished fourth on the road behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota, who McLaren accused of breaking F1 rules by overtaking while the field was under the control of the safety car.

Officials initially gave Trulli a 25-second penalty, promoting Hamilton to third after Hamilton and Ryan gave evidence he had not deliberately let the Italian through, and he had not been asked by the team to do so.But McLaren's radio communication contradicted this - and after reconvening in Malaysia at the end of last week, Hamilton was disqualified from the Australian race and Trulli reinstated to third place.

Whitmarsh, whose own job is under scrutiny, has admitted the team made serious errors in their handling of the situation.

He took over from Ron Dennis as team principal only on 1 March and has admitted he did consider resigning at the end of last week.

"It wouldn't be true to say that it (resignation) wasn't (on my mind) because at a time like this, you think about what you got involved with the sport for, and it wasn't for this sort of thing," he said in Malaysia.

"It hasn't been a great experience for me and it wasn't what I started out 20 years ago to experience."In the longer term, I can contemplate my future. It's not self-determining.

"It's for the shareholders of this team to take a view and it's ultimately up to them to decide what's best for this team.

"I'm not resigning this weekend. We've made commitments to look at how we arrived at this situation.

"We've got to learn from it and we've got to be better in future."