Championship leader Felipe Drugovich was leading for MP Motorsport until the final seconds of Friday's qualifying, when he hit the wall at Turn 19, bringing out the yellow flags in the last sector.
Lawson then improved on his earlier time to take provisional pole, with DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa also improving to go second, demoting Drugovich to third.
But stewards ruled that Lawson had failed to reduce his speed in the yellow flag zone and cancelled his lap time.
Drugovich will now start on pole on Sunday and ninth in the sprint.
Jack Doohan was also under investigation for improving his time under the single yellow flag, but no further action was taken after it was decided he had “noticeably reduced his speed.”
The Virtuosi driver is promoted from seventh to third on the grid for the feature race by the decision.
Lawson will start from fifth place and was also handed a five-place grid penalty for Saturday’s sprint race, and will now line up 11th. He was also given two penalty points.
An FIA document said: “Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards determined that the driver did not noticeably reduce his speed in the sector where the yellow flag was displayed for the stranded car 11.
“His mini sector time was only 0.012s slower than his best time of that mini sector. During the hearing, the driver furthermore admitted that he saw the yellow flags and the yellow light panel at Marshal Post 20A.
“As it was not evident that the driver had reduced speed, the Stewards impose the above penalty.”
Stewards said Iwasa had “failed to abandon the lap” and cancelled his qualifying lap, leaving him to start 13th on Sunday, while he was also handed a 10-place grid penalty for the sprint and will start 20th.
He was also handed three penalty points.
They wrote: “Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards determined that the Driver did not reduce his speed significantly and did attempt to set a meaningful lap time.
“The driver did not abandon the lap.
“During the hearing, the Driver furthermore admitted that he had not seen the double waved yellow flags and the double yellow light panel at Marshal Post 20A, although these were clearly in his line of sight.
“As it was evident that the driver had attempted to set a meaningful lap time, the Stewards impose the above penalty.”
Richard Verschoor has also been permitted to start both races from the back of the grid after failing to set a qualifying time within 107% of the fastest lap in Group B.
He was not able to “set an acceptable lap time during qualifying due to ongoing electrical issues.”
Amaury Cordeel was handed a reprimand for driving partially into one of the Charouz Racing System pit boxes and brushing a stand containing front wings.
