Williams has been fined after Pastor Maldonado shed a wheel during this morning's opening practice session.

On an incident filled day at Suzuka, the Venezuelan brought out the yellow flags when he lost its rear-left wheel wheel whilst negotiating the Spoon corner during its third consecutive fast lap. As his car slewed to a halt in the gravel the wheel bounced down the track where it was eventually recovered by the marshals.

Whilst the Grove outfit carried out an investigation so too did the race stewards who subsequently described the incident as a "serious safety issue".

"Examination of the parts concerned revealed that the wheel fastener had not been completely fastened," they said in a statement, "thus not engaging the first retaining plunge. The secondary retaining plunger failed to keep the wheel in place, a breach of Article 14.7 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.

"The team. which cooperated completely with the stewards during the investigation, has assured the stewards that the appropriate measures will be immediately implemented to ensure compliance."

The FIA ruled that a secondary retaining mechanism needed to be introduced after the incident during the German Grand Prix in which a wheel became detached from Mark Webber's car and hit a television cameraman in the pitlane.

The British team, which has scored just one point to date, was fined 60,000 euros.

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