The three-way battle for the Formula One drivers' world championship is set to continue in Sunday's German Grand Prix after a meeting of FIA stewards yesterday confirmed Mika Hakkinen's victory in Austria, even though an official seal was missing from the electronic control unit of his McLaren-Mercedes.

But the race stewards did take the unusual step of denying McLaren the 10 constructors' championship points that went with the win, and they fined the British team the maximum $50,000 (£32,000 sterling) permitted under the rules.

This decision leaves Hakkinen two points behind his team-mate David Coulthard and eight behind the championship leader, Michael Schumacher, who crashed out in Austria, with 10 of the season's 17 races completed. But Ferrari have retaken the lead of the constructors' championship with 92 points to the 88 of McLaren.

The only previous occasion that such a judgment was reached came after the 1995 Brazilian Grand Prix, when Schumacher's Benetton and Coulthard's Williams were excluded because fuel samples failed to match those lodged prior to the race with the FIA.

On that occasion the fuel they were using was not illegal, but the offence was that the samples failed to match, although no unfair performance advantage resulted. The Austrian stewards were guided by a similar philosophy in their decision on Hakkinen's rule infringement.

"After today's decision we now consider the matter closed," said Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren's managing director.

"While the loss of constructors' points is very disappointing, we believe that with our current performance we will render the loss academic by the end of the year."

Whitmarsh confirmed that McLaren had decided not to appeal against their loss of constructors' points, although the FIA provisionally set time aside tomorrow to hear the appeal if one had been lodged.

"If there was a McLaren appeal, we wanted the outcome sorted before this weekend's German race," said a senior FIA source.

The risk with appealing is that it would open the door for submissions from rival teams, most notably Ferrari whose surviving car finished third in Austria. McLaren decided not to give their championship rivals any chance to turn that third place into a second and consequently have taken the medicine prescribed by the stewards.