Hyundai has been fined €5000 for contravention of parc fermé regulations at the start of the final day of Rally Poland.
The Estonian removed tape from the air intake on his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 while the car was still in parc fermé before the final day’s stages on the roads around Mikołajki.
Stewards at the seventh round of the WRC decided this was a breach of Article 2.13 of the 2024 FIA WRC Sporting Regulations and invoked a fine suspended on the Hyundai team for a further breach of similar rules at last year’s Acropolis Rally of Greece.
Last September Hyundai found itself before the stewards when a team member was found taking photographs of another competitor’s car.
In explaining Sunday’s offence, and after hearing from Tänak and Hyundai team manager Tolga Ozakinci, the decision stated: “The Stewards presented the report from the FIA Deputy Technical Delegate to the Driver and Team Manager.
“The report stated that the scrutineers had noted that the blue protection tape was removed from Car No. 8’s roof air intake before the car had left parc fermé at TC15D (Parc fermé – Out). The tape was found in a nearby garbage container. Such an action is in contravention to Article 2.13 of the 2024 FIA WRC Sporting Regulations.
“The driver was forthright and explained that he mistakenly started removing the tape as the Crew were about to enter the car. There was no deliberate reason behind this action, and it was simply muscle memory and an involuntary and unconscious action.”
Sitting down with the stewards ended another disappointing Polish outing for Tänak. Having come close to winning twice previously in the Masurian Lakes, his hopes were dashed when his i20 collided with a deer on Friday morning.
