Lewis Hamilton has been handed a five-place penalty on the grid for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix for changing his gearbox.

The 2008 world champion was given the penalty when it was discovered that his McLaren was fitted with a new gearbox when the previous one had not been used for the required four races.

Saturday's qualifying session at Suzuka was postponed because of persistent rain and will now take place before Sunday's race.

"In final practice we noticed abnormal gearbox oil pressure on Lewis's car which we believed we had corrected ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session," said a statement from McLaren.

"This afternoon, as we fired up Lewis's car several times in preparation for qualifying, we became aware that the symptoms were worse than we'd originally diagnosed.

"A decision was later taken to change the gearbox ahead of tomorrow's qualifying session and the grand prix. As a result, Lewis will receive a five-place grid penalty for tomorrow's race."

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