Stobart VK M-Sport Ford team maintains their fourth position in the FIA World Rally Championship manufacturers standings despite a time penalty following tonight s finish of the Rally de Portugal. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila, Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud and Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr each received a five-minute penalty after this fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Event scrutineers drew the team s attention to the fact that the rear side windows on the Ford Focus RS World Rally Cars of all three crews did not comply with the homologation form of the car in terms of thickness. The matter was referred to the FIA stewards of the meeting.
Team representatives attended a meeting of the stewards at which they accepted that a breach of regulations had taken place. The penalty was accepted by the team and no appeal was made. Despite the time penalty, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford retains fourth position in the manufacturers championship.
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Principal Malcolm Wilson said:
“We were disappointed to learn from the scrutineers that the team made an error. We will launch a detailed investigation into how this could have happened. ”
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