Josh McErlean and Adrien Fourmaux were summoned to the Stewards office after completing Acropolis Rally Greece having received a report from the FIA Technical Delegate with video evidence attached and each received a one-minute penalty “where both were ruled to have failed to have fastened safety belts prior to their vehicles being in motion in separate incidents.”
The effect of this is to deny McErlean his best ever result in a WRC event, dropping to sixth in the final classification with Fourmaux dropping to seventh from his fifth place on-the-road position.
In SS12, the Hyundai pair stopped to change a wheel and Fourmaux set off before Coria was fully strapped in. The Stewards report noted: ”When the driver realised that the co-driver was not properly fastened, they drove slowly trying to avoid any possible incident, until the co-driver was fastened.”
The facts for McErlean were: ”The co-driver of car No. 55 had his safety belt not properly fastened while the car was in motion on SS16.” They argued that the car moved because of the gravity and the driver only accelerated when the co-driver was fully fastened.
McErlean has given notice of his attention to appeal the Stewards findings.
Sami Pajari and Elfyn Evans benefited from the post event penalties, classified as fourth and fifth respectively.
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