Trulli keeps Monaco fourth place

A missing seal on the R202's unit following Sunday's race prompted the investigation at the team's Enstone base in England. If the FIA had discovered the unit did not comply with Formula 1 regulations, Trulli would have lost his position and the three championship points that went with it.

But the FIA's technical team found no irregularities with the unit and the Monaco result has been confirmed.

Yesterday, Renault's director of engineering Pat Symonds stated that the team was confident that Trulli's result would be upheld.

Each car's electronic unit is routinely checked and sealed by the FIA. This is to ensure that the systems remain legal for every race. The FIA gave the example that an electronic component in the launch control system might have the means to receive a signal from the pits when the red lights go out at the start of a race, enabling a car to leave the line faster than a driver's natural reactions would allow.

There is no regulation stating that the seal must be in place. But with it found to be missing, the unit had to be re-checked.

Before traction control was made legal again last year, seals did have to be in place on programmable electronic units forming part of the engine management system. McLaren fell foul of this rule at the Austrian Grand Prix in 2000 when Mika Hakkinen's winning car was found to be missing a seal. The Finn kept his victory on that occasion, but the team lost the 10 constructors' championship points.