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Turan and M-Sport penalised in Spain

Frigyes Turan lost his WRC 2 podium and preparation firm M-Sport were fined €30,000 for breaking FIA technical rules at Rallyracc Catalunya - Rally de España last weekend.

The stewards were kept busy on Sunday night after two reports were submitted from final scrutineering by the FIA Technical delegate.

The first concerned Turan's Ford Fiesta R5, which was found to have two suspension components that were too heavy. Its right and left suspension wishbone/arms weighed 3296g and 3218g respectively - more than the regulation maximum 3190.95g.

Turan's team said they had bought the parts from a supplier and had not checked the weight before fitting them. Stewards applied a time penalty of 25 minutes, which dropped Turan five places in the WRC 2 classification - from third to eighth. His demotion moved Jim Van den Heuvel to third, while title hopeful Teemu Suninen finished fourth.

The second case for the stewards concerned seven Ford Fiesta R2 cars, including all five finishers in the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy (DDFT), as well as the similar cars of Nil Solans and Jose Manuel Mora.

All were found to be fitted with protection around the Engine Control Unit (ECU) and a cooling duct that linked to an opening on the front bumper. These modifications were not authorised, as required by FIA technical regulations.

M-Sport technical representative Maciej Woda told stewards that the part had been used since 2015 to prevent overheating and that no sporting advantage was involved. He said it was part of the kit provided by M-Sport to their customers, including the DDFT cars that are maintained by M-Sport and supplied to the competitors on each event.

Stewards fined M-Sport €30,000 for not complying with the FIA International Sporting Code.

Zdroj: wrc.com