Fisichella fourth after 'stacking' penalty.

Giancarlo Fisichella was forced to relinquish his hold on another podium finish when the stewards found him guilty of unnecessarily holding up the field approaching his final pit-stop in the Chinese Grand Prix.

In common with most other teams, Renault opted to pit both its drivers under the second of two safety cars in the Shanghai event but, with Fernando Alonso holding a lead that would ease the team's passage to the constructors' title, Fisichella opted for an extremely slow in-lap, both in order to ensure that his pit box was clear and also to allow Alonso to rejoin well ahead of the rest of the field.

The two Renaults resumed in 1-3 formation, although the continued presence of the safety car meant that Alonso's lead was negligible. Fisichella was then ordered to take a drive-thru' penalty for his actions.

The slow haul through pit-lane, taken just a handful of laps from the end of the 56-lap event, saw the Italian drop behind Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and, despite the exhortations of race engineer Alan Permane to 'go get him', came up less than a second shy of third at the flag. Fisichella, however, remained puzzled as to why he had been singled out for punishment.

"I was just managing my pace at the start, driving within the limits to let Fernando build a good lead, and I was still in a strong position when the FIA penalised me," he sighed, "I don't know why [they did], because Raikkonen did the same in Belgium and nothing happened to him."

The result had no bearing on the outcome of the constructors' championship, however, as Alonso went on to win the race, while Raikkonen - whose Spa antics prompted the creation of the 'stacking' rule Fisi fell foul of - brought the sole remaining McLaren home between the two Renaults.

"It was a shame not to be able to celebrate on the podium with Fernando and Flavio but, overall, this has been a fantastic year for me, my best in F1," Fisichella announced, "I have won a race, scored podiums and helped the team to be world champions. I bounced back strongly after the criticism last weekend, and this is still the best fourth place of my life."