With an unique and surprising one-stop strategy, Mexican rookie Sergio Perez finished an impressive seventh on debut, one place ahead of teammate Kamui Kobayashi.

But the stewards excluded the two Ferrari-powered C30 cars from the results after ruling that the rear wings were illegal.

The scrutineers discovered that the wings breached two articles of the technical regulations, where essentially the angle created too great a gap when the adjustable element was deployed.

"This is a very surprising and disappointing result.  Certainly this (breach) has not lead to any performance advantage," insisted technical director James Key.

Swiss based Sauber said it will appeal the decision.