Sutil was promoted to eighth place after Liuzzi's penalty

The Italian was eighth at Fuji but was demoted a place for overtaking Spyker's Adrian Sutil when under a yellow flag.

That 25-second penalty moved Sutil to eighth, giving his team a first point.

In addition, Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel will be dropped 10 places on the grid for Sunday's Chinese race after crashing with Red Bull's Mark Webber.

Both drivers were under the safety car at the time, with both poised to finish on the podium.

Australian Webber was left fuming as a potential top-three finish was snatched from his grasp.

He said: "Vettel was a bit wild behind me during the first safety car period and then did a very good job of hitting me very hard under the second safety car."

Regarding the docked point, a Toro Rosso statement confirmed: "The team has lodged an appeal against this decision."

606: DEBATE These sort of incidents are a watershed for young drivers and hopefully Sebastian Vettel will learn his lessons quickly. gordonmurray

But they may face difficulty in overturning the ruling, given the confidence of Spyker team principal Colin Kolles.

"We had clear evidence Liuzzi passed Adrian under yellow flags and I am pleased the stewards agreed," said Kolles.

"The decision, which has ultimately given us our first point, is a just reward for Adrian, who drove an excellent race, while it is a well-deserved boost for all the team's hard work this year.

"Now we have this milestone ticked off, we can focus on moving forward and being in the points on a more regular basis."

Sutil added: "We deserved this point after all the hard work this year. It's a great feeling, even if we didn't get it on the track.

"I think it was the right decision. There was no green flag after a yellow flag from turn one, so we were definitely right and that is why we got the point."