The Russian crew of driver Nikolai Gryazin and navigator Konstantin Alexandrov have been fined for cutting the track and depriving them of victory in the first leg of the WRC World Rally Championship in Monte Carlo in the WRC2 standings.
Gryazin’s crew, representing the Toksport WRT 2 team, led from start to finish and gained a late race advantage of 4.5 seconds over the PH Sport crew of Frenchmen Joanne Rossel and Arnaud Dunant. After the finish, Gryazin and Aleksandrov were fined and deprived of their victory.
– Don’t be surprised, rallies also have cut-off penalties – this is when the crew goes off the asphalt with all four wheels on such asphalt stages. But in rallying, such penalties are at the discretion of the judges.
The protest was filed after the finish by the PH Sport team represented by Rossel and Dunant (n°21). Their diary claims that Gryazin breached Article 19.2 of the FIA WRC 2023 sporting regulations during the 13.2km 14 SS corner on Saturday night.
After viewing the attached documents and the boarding of Gryazin’s car, the judges decided to satisfy the protest and impose a 5-second penalty on Gryazin, considering that he had beaten Rossel by 4.5 seconds, the press service of the Russian Automobile Federation told me.
Source : MatchTV
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