The dark clouds that brought the Malaysian Grand Prix to a premature end are nothing compared to those hanging over the heads of Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren team.

The team's reputation, but even more so that of Hamilton, of sporting honesty and integrity took a heavy knock in the days building up to the race that neither of them is likely to recover from, possibly ever. All because of a sly bid to cheat Toyota's Jarno Trulli out of points in Australia.

Most readers are probably aware of how the situation developed, but if you are not one of them, here is a short recap:

In the final few laps of the Australian Grand Prix, while all the cars were queued up behind the Safety Car, Trulli (third at the time) slid off the circuit and fourth-placed Hamilton went past. The Toyota driver rejoined behind the world champion who shortly afterwards slowed down and moved over. Trulli slipped past to retake third place and that is how the race ended.

However, the FIA stewards wanted to find out how Trulli came to finish ahead of Hamilton so they called both parties to an enquiry. Based on available evidence, including Hamilton and team manager David Ryan's assertions that the McLaren driver had not consciously allowed the Italian through, the stewards declared that move illegal and penalised Trulli, re-classifying him 12th and Hamilton third.

Crucially it needs to be understood that the rules do allow a driver to pass another under Safety Car conditions should the leading driver appear to be in trouble. That was the case when Hamilton passed Trulli and the Italian was under the same impression when he re-passed Hamilton.

In the days following Melbourne, however, new evidence surfaced that showed Hamilton did indeed wave Trulli past. This implied that Trulli in fact did not break the rules and the stewards reconvened in Malaysia to reconsider the case.

This new evidence included a media interview given by Hamilton shortly after he got out of the car and before the Australian stewards' hearing in which he admitted his team had ordered him to let Trulli through and that he did so, as well as a recording of the radio conversation between team and driver that confirmed this.

In the second hearing Hamilton and Ryan were again asked whether there were orders to let Trulli through and whether the driver obeyed them. Both again denied this was the case.

Based on the new evidence the stewards found that Ryan and Hamilton had deliberately misled them and found the team and driver guilty of bringing the sport into disrepute, for which both were disqualified from the Australian results while Trulli was handed back his third place.

This is the same transgression that McLaren were found guilty of just more than 18 months ago for their part in the Ferrari spying scandal, which cost them a record $100-million fine and the loss of all their Constructors' points.

McLaren now faces another World Motor Sport Council hearing and the chances of another heavy penalty must be more than good.

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