Hamilton's finish at Melbourne overturned

SEPANG, Malaysia, April 2 (UPI) -- Reigning Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from last Sunday's Australian Grand Prix for "misleading" information.

At the race in Melbourne, Hamilton, driving a McLaren Mercedes, crossed the finish line in fourth but was given a third-place finish ahead of Jarno Trulli (Toyota). Trulli had received a 25-second time penalty for passing Hamilton under the safety car during the race's closing laps.

During a hearing Thursday in Malaysia, the International Automobile Federation, the F1 governing body, investigated the incident after saying there was evidence that Hamilton and the McLaren team acted in a "manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing deliberately misleading evidence" at a post-race hearing.

Lewis Hamilton and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes were "excluded from the race classification for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the classification is amended accordingly (and) Trulli's penalty has been withdrawn," the FIA said in a statement.

The Australian Grand Prix was won by Jenson Button for the Brawn GP team.