Sergio Perez's dream result in the Australian Grand Prix has been lost after both Saubers were disqualified for a technical infringement.
The Mexican rookie had earned plaudits for a brilliant drive to seventh on his debut on a one-stop strategy, while his team-mate Kamui Kobayashi had finished eighth.
But during a technical inspection after the race it was found that the cars' rear wing elements contravened the regulations.
FIA officials were checking the concave radius of sections of the three rear wing elements that are in contact with the external air stream on several cars including the Saubers.
The Swiss cars were disqualified for breaching articles 3.10.1 and 3.10.2 of the technical regulations, which state that "the local concave radius of the curvature may not be smaller that 100mm.”
Though a technical breach of the rules, it is not thought that the Saubers gained a performance advantage from whatever was awry on the wing element.
Sauber have announced that they will appeal and technical director James Key admitted the stewards' decision had come as a shock.
"This is a very surprising and disappointing result," he said.
"It appears that there is a question over the top surface of the uppermost rear wing element, this area is not the working surface of the component and therefore relatively unimportant to its function.
"Certainly this has not led to any performance advantage.
"We are checking the design of the parts now to better understand the situation and we intend to appeal the decision made by the stewards.”
The disqualification moves Felipe Massa up to seventh for Ferrari, Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi into eighth, and means both Force Indias now score - with Adrian Sutil ninth and Paul di Resta getting a point on his Formula 1 debut in 10th.