Rally Sweden leader Craig Breen, his co-driver James Fulton and the Hyundai Motorsport team have been reprimanded for his i20 N Rally1 not being driven in full-electric mode through a HEV zone.
HEV zones were a new addition to World Rally Championship rallies in 2022 due to the birth of the hybrid-powered Rally1 regulations.
They are defined in the road book for each individual round, and through these zones each Rally1 car must not have its internal-combustion engine activated.
But Breen was called up to a stewards’ hearing on Friday night as he wasn’t fully compliant with this regulation when traveling between TC1B and TC2 on Thursday evening.
During the hearing, Breen explained that his internal-combustion engine was not starting and so he left parc fermé in EV mode, even though he wasn’t obliged to by the regulations.
Once he reached the next time control he managed to turn on ICE mode when he was waiting to check-in. Concerned that he wouldn’t be able to engage ICE mode again, he kept the car running until he was convinced that it would be fine.
Breen was judged to have breached Article 34.1.7 of the WRC’s sporting regulations – which relates to ICE use in HEV zones – for traveling 30m into the HEV zone with his engine running, but was given just a reprimand because the stewards found there to be a mitigating circumstance after considering data shared by Hyundai and from the FIA technical delegate.
Breen therefore escaped any fine or time penalty, and so his rally lead remains intact heading into Saturday.
