Prior o the finish of the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix Felipe Massa and Sebastien Bourdais weer under investigation for a coming together between the pair as Bourdais exited the pits and Massa went around the Torro Ross driver.

It was announced that Bourdais has received a twenty five second post-race penalty for his part in the incident. This would drop Bourdais from sixth to tenth in the race results> he would lose his points while Massa would move up to seventh from his original eighth. Hamilton's championship advantage over Massa would be reduced to five points.

The penalty moves Bourdais' teammate Vettel up to sixth ahead of Massa, and gives Red Bull's Mark Webber a point for eighth place.