Dani Sordo has been handed a 10-second penalty by Acropolis Rally Greece stewards for hitting and pushing a barrel that marked a donut section on SS12.
During Saturday evening’s special stage, held around a motorway service station, Sordo hit the barrel nose-first and pushed it away from its original location.
Stewards considered this push, which meant he failed to fully rotate around the obstacle the required number of times, a contravention of the rally’s road book and straying outside of the defined roadway.
The stewards’ report stated: “Mr [Tolga] Ozakinci [Hyundai team manager] explained that car No. 6 had suffered some damage from the previous stage, where the right rear tyre had been punctured. As a consequence, it was hard for the crew to control the car on SS12.
Ott Tänak, pictured, successfully navigated all the donut sections on the EKO superspecial
“Approaching the obstacle indicated in Bulletin No 2 Attachment No 2 Box 8, the crew completed the doughnut trying to follow the route described in Bulletin No. 2, but the car hit the obstacle moving it for meters. The video evidence showed that the crew of car No. 6 did not miss the obstacle.
“Nevertheless, the crew did not properly negotiate it as described in Bulletin No 2 Attachment No 2 box 8. The Stewards therefore determined that Car No. 6 did not follow the defined route on SS12 at 1.05 km and that the above time penalty is appropriate in this case.”
The time penalty does not materially affect Sordo’s result in Greece. Not only does he keep his second place overall but such was his advantage over Sébastien Ogier after SS12 that he keeps second in the Saturday points classification too.
