Formula One: Williams and Toyota Accept Punishment

The Williams and Toyota teams have taken their disqualifications from Sunday's Canadian grand prix on the chin and will not be appealing against the decision to exclude all four cars for infringing the rules relating to front-brake cooling ducts.

This is a massive blow for Williams, who after a disappointing season had seen Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya finish strongly in second and fifth places - in theory narrowing the gap to third-placed BAR-Honda to just three points.

Instead, with Button moving up to the bottom step of the podium, the gap is up to 16 points as the teams travel from Montreal to Indianapolis for Sunday's United States grand prix.

Williams and Toyota, whose cars driven by Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis finished eighth and 10th, were disqualified because the cooling ducts to the front brakes were further away from the inside edge of the wheel rims than permissible (30mm in the case of Williams, just 5mm for Toyota). The mistakes are probably a result of hurried preparation of the cars which, unlike for the European races, arrived in Canada in kit form and had to be reassembled.

"It was a mistake and no performance advantage was gained," said Sam Michael, the Williams technical director. The biggest beneficiaries were the Jordan team whose cars driven by Timo Glock, who was standing in for Giorgio Pantano, and Nick Heidfeld vaulted to seventh and eighth in the revised race order.

The president of Toyota John Howett has criticised his team's disqualification after Sunday's race as an "unpleasant penalty".

Howett, clearly angry with the decision, said: "I must stress the alleged technical infringement resulted in absolutely no increase in our performance level during the race. But we reluctantly accept this unpleasant penalty and must now look to next week's grand prix in Indianapolis."