McLaren cops suspended 3-race ban

PARIS: McLaren were yesterday handed a suspended three-race ban for bringing the sport into disrepute, motorsport's governing body, the FIA, announced.

Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes-backed British-based team were in the dock on five counts of misleading stewards at the season-opening race in Melbourne in the so-called 'liar-gate' affair.

The FIA said in a statement that, at an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, McLaren had "admitted five charges of breaching article 151c of the International Sporting Code relating to events at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix".