Felipe Massa has been promoted to seventh place in the Japanese GP after stewards hit Sebastien Bourdais with a penalty.

The Toro Rosso driver was hit with a 25-second time penalty after he was deemed to have caused a collision with Massa late in the race.

Massa attempted to pass Bourdais around the outside as the latter rejoined the race following his second pitstop but the two made contact causing the Ferrari driver to spin.

Consequently, Bourdais has dropped from sixth to 10th behind Sebastian Vettel, Massa, Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld.

Crucially it means Massa picks up two points for the race and is now just five points behind world championship leader Lewis Hamilton with two races remaining.