Farfus half-disqualified from Curitiba races

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Augusto Farfus has been stripped of the points he scored in yesterday’s first WTCC race at Curitiba after it was found an engine protection support had been incorrectly mounted to his car.

However he has not lost the points he scored in the second race, which suggests that his car was legal in the later event.

Farfus started the second race from sixth thanks to his third-place finish in the first race. But surely he should have been relegated down the grid after racing with an illegal car? Should he now also be stripped of the points he scored in the second race?

There was a five minute delay before the start of the second Curitiba round which seemed to be because the stewards were deliberating various penalties. I watched the race on Eurosport and the commentators had little idea what was going on – the race got under way with a different person on pole position to who they were expecting.

With Farfus being the highest-ranked home driver in the race it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to presume there was some opposition to moving him down the grid.

Farfus’s infringement appears to have been minor, gave him no advantage, and was probably and accident. But usually, as far as the FIA is concerned, that doesn’t matter – an infringement is an infringement.

If I were one of Farfus’s rivals I’d be preparing an appeal on this one.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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