Ott Tänak has been handed a five-minute penalty on Rally Finland and a suspended 35-point deduction in the World Rally Championship after an incident involving scrutineers at the stop control of stage seven.
Championship leader Tǎnak had crashed on the second pass of Saarikas, going off the road and into a tree which caused heavy damage to his car. Subsequent electrical problems broke the radiator fans on his Hyundai i20 N Rally1, which led to overheating issues.
A decision by the Rally Finland stewards outlined a frenetic incident at the SS7 stop control, whereby Tänak – eager to keep his car moving to feed air into the radiators and keep temperatures down – struck and injured a scruntineer while tire scanning was taking place.
The stewards decision read: “On Friday 1st August 2025, after the Stop Control of SS7 (Saarikas 2), car No. 8 arrived at tyre checking and stopped at the direction of a scrutineer.
“At that moment, the driver of car No. 8 waved his hands asking the scrutineer to move away. In the meantime, another scrutineer started checking the tyres. When the tyre scanning was almost at the end and before receiving the signal to leave, the driver accelerated abruptly, striking a scrutineer with the front right bumper and causing minor injuries, including bloody scratches to the left knee.”
Tänak and Hyundai team manager Pablo Marcos attended the stewards’ meeting, explaining the reasons behind Tänak’s actions.
Tänak had damaged his car after crashing nose-first into a tree on Saarikas
“Mr. Tänak tried to explain the problem to the scrutineer by using hand gestures as it was difficult to communicate,” read the stewards’ report.
“When he thought the checks were finished, he immediately moved from his position without realising that he had hit the scrutineer. The Driver apologised to the Stewards and stated that he was not aware that the scrutineer had been injured.
“He stated that had he known that he had hit the scrutineer, he would have stopped immediately. Mr. Tänak also offered to apologise personally to the injured official.”
Stewards confirmed the official involved received only minor injuries from the incident.
“As the driver did not pay due attention to the official, he created an unsafe situation and, as a consequence, his car hit the scrutineer, thus causing minor injuries.
“This constitutes a breach of Art. 12.2.1.h of the 2025 FIA International Sporting Code. In this case the reckless reaction of Mr. Tänak cannot be mitigated because they were facing overheating problems on their car, which remains under the competitor’s responsibility.”
A five-minute penalty drops Tänak to 28th place in Finland, 6m07.2s off rally leader Kalle Rovanperä. His suspended 35-point penalty in the championship will come into effect should a similar incident occur during the remainder of the 2025 season.
