Portugal : Subaru World Rally Team - FinishAt a post rally meeting on Sunday night, the stewards of Rally Portugal awarded a five-minute penalty to six Ford Focus drivers who had finished the event earlier in the day. The penalties applied to the cars of
Marcus Gronholm,
Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala, Henning Solberg, Matthew Wilson and Gareth MacHale.
The stewards took the decision after receiving a report from the FIA Technical Delegate which stated that the rear side windows of the cars were thinner than the regulation minimum 3.5mm and did not comply with the homologation model of the car.
The stewards agreed that as a technical regulation had been breached a time penalty would be applied, as well as a reprimand to each of the entrants for the carelessness displayed in using an incorrect part.
The decision significantly altered the final top-ten positions. Although
Sebastien Loeb's position as rally winner was unaffected, Petter Solberg was judged to have finished second overall, with Dani Sordo taking third.
The following quotes do not reflect the Ford penalty.
Richard Taylor, SWRT MD
“Over the three days it's been a positive rally for Petter. He's equalled his best result of the season and moved up in the drivers' championship, while fourth place has helped the team in the manufacturers' points too. It was absolutely crucial that Petter came away from Portugal with a decent amount of points, and in that respect we're satisfied with what we achieved.
There's clearly some more development work needed on the Subaru Impreza WRC2007 before the next rally in Argentina, but what we've learned on the gravel roads in Mexico and Portugal has shown us the aspects of the car we need to concentrate on.”
Petter Solberg
"Overall we can take a lot of positive things from our performance this weekend. On many stages were able to challenge the pace of the leaders, and although we were unable to pressure them this afternoon - we think because of an electrical problem with the turbo's anti-lag system - we're continuing to improve the performance of this new car. We have a test planned soon, and I'm feeling confident that with some more stage mileage we will unlock more of the potential in time for the next event.”
Patrick Letort, BFGoodrich
"The varied weather conditions we have seen this weekend made selecting the correct tyres extremely difficult and some of the choices worked better than others. But with some of his stage times Petter has shown the potential of the BFGoodrich and Subaru combination, and with more testing the overall package can only become more competitive."
Source SWRT
