Formula One's governing body faced calls to modify qualifying procedures for safety reasons after McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen were penalised in Malaysia at the weekend.

Championship leader Hamilton and his team-mate were demoted five places on the starting grid at Sepang for impeding rivals when they slowed to save fuel after completing their final qualifying laps.

The rules have changed this season, preventing the 10 drivers who take part in the third and final session from refuelling between the end of Saturday's qualifying and the race on Sunday.

The final session has also been shortened by five minutes, allowing enough time for each driver to do only two laps with new tyres.

The revised format has raised safety concerns with drivers slowing to save fuel immediately they finish while some others are still at full speed.

"I clearly don't like the dangers implicit in this situation," said BMW Sauber team boss Mario Theissen at the weekend.

"The speed differentials are so great that this is a problem which we need urgently to resolve, hopefully by the next race in Bahrain."

Williams technical director Sam Michael expressed similar concerns.

"I am sure it will come up in the team managers' meeting because it was a bit too close," he told the autosport.com website. "The speed differential was massive."

BMW's Nick Heidfeld and Renault's double world champion Fernando Alonso complained after Saturday's qualifying that their final flying laps had been slowed by drivers cruising round in front of them.