McLaren have formally lodged an appeal against the decision not to penalise three drivers in Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix because of fuel irregularities, the Formula One team said on Tuesday.

McLaren have appealed to the sport's governing body, the FIA, after Williams driver Nico Rosberg and the BMW Sauber pairing of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica were not punished under rules relating to fuel temperatures.

Should the three drivers have their results in Sunday's race at Sao Paolo nullified then McLaren's Lewis Hamilton would win enough points to be crowned world champion instead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, the winner of the last race of the season.

"The significance of this matter and its timing is, of course, regrettable," McLaren said in a statement on its website.

"The team wishes to win races and Championships on the track.

"However, if there has been an irregularity, which is not the fault of the team, we feel that the matter must be properly examined to ensure that the rules are applied.

"This is something that we believe the FIA would fully support and would wish to be seen to have done."

Raikkonen won the race to take the Formula One crown by a single point from McLaren's 22-year-old British driver Hamilton and his Spanish double world champion teammate Fernando Alonso.

McLaren are appealing the stewards decision to take no action against Williams and BMW Sauber, whose fuel was found by checks after the race to have broken technical regulations because it was more than 10 degrees Celsius below the ambient temperature.

Fuel performs better at cooler temperatures, giving a potentially significant performance advantage.

Stewards found there was a 'considerable discrepancy' between ambient temperatures recorded by Formula One Management's monitors and the FIA-contracted meteorologists Meteo France.

They ruled that there was therefore 'sufficient doubt' as to render a penalty inappropriate.

McLaren said it did not question the integrity of BMW Sauber or Williams.

"Neither team would have sought to gain an advantage by such an irregularity and the situation could only have arisen as the consequence of an operational error within the team on the day," said McLaren.

"Ultimately we feel that the FIA should determine whether an irregularity occurred or not, and the team will fully respect the process and any decision that is ultimately given."

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