Ogier extends lead with Rally Italia win
The reigning world champion shows his class in Sardinia
Sousa penalised in WRC 2
Bernardo Sousa has been relegated from third place in the final WRC 2 standings at Rally Italia Sardegna after being handed a five-minute time penalty.
The Portuguese driver was the subject of a post-rally investigation by the stewards after they discovered he had used 26 tyres during the course of the rally rather than the permitted 24. He was relegated to fifth place, while Yuriy Protasov and Karl Kruuda were promoted to third and fourth respectively.
Sousa claimed his team was not aware they had used 26 tyres and he insisted that he did not want to gain an advantage. However, the stewards decided that the five-minute penalty still applied.
Fellow WRC 2 competitors Sebastien Chardonnet and Kruuda were also fined at the end of the rally when stewards discovered the radiators on their Citroen DS3 R5 and Peugeot 208 T16 R5 cars were smaller than those that were originally homologated. They were each fined 2,000 Euros.
Stewards also changed notional times relating to Max Rendina and Gianluca Linari. As a result Linari climbs to third in the Production Cup results, relegating Rendina to fourth. Rendina retains the series lead, while Linari moves up from third to second.
