The FIA World Rally Championship stewards have handed a five-second time penalty to Hyundai´s Dani Sordo after it was found out that the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car performed an illegal hybrid boost during the Riudecanyes 2 power stage in RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada.
Sordo’s car was found to have produced a 0.08kJ hybrid boost without a valid regeneration. Rally1 cars are required to regenerate 30kJ of energy before a hybrid boost can administer via the throttle pedal. Due to this misfortune, Sordo has lost his valuable bonus championship points by finishing fifth in the stage and was now dropped down to 10th place, however, the penalty will not affect his fifth-place finish in the overall standings.
The steward´s decision reads: “The representative of the Competitor explained that after the start launch of SS19 the car boosted 0.08kJ without a valid regen, which is due to latency in the communication system and exceptionally hard braking. As this problem had never occurred before (also not while testing), the team did not have any idea that this could happen. The Team Manager [Pablo Marcos] stated that this mistake is possible to avoid in the future.”
“The Stewards considered that, although the performance advantage was negligible, the minimum regen 30kJ value was not met to have an extra boost. They, therefore, decided to impose the above penalty, also considering that it is the competitor’s responsibility to ensure compliance of the car at all times.”
