A Hyundai employee fell into an outrageous trick at the World Rally Championship – he justified his strictly forbidden action with ignorance

The Hyundai team survived with a conditional fine and reprimands.

Kalle Rovanperä drove to an overwhelming victory in the Greek World Rally Championship. Toyota took a double win when Elfyn Evans was another.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuvilleone of Rovanperä’s worst threats in the World Cup battle, had to stop on Saturday from the top spot in a dramatic and very eventful rally contested in harsh conditions.

After the race, we received information that the Hyundai team had fallen into a rash trick. During the race, the team’s representative had taken pictures of other teams’ cars in the Parc Ferme area. Parc Ferme is the area where the cars are driven during the night break.

The trick of the Hyundai representative is strictly forbidden in the rally, and a breakdown is very rare.

Hyundai received reprimands for its trick and a conditional fine of 5,000 euros. The fine will come into effect if the team commits a similar violation again during the year.

The jury of the World Rally Championship in Greece had received a report on the incident from the technical delegation of the International Automobile Federation, FIA. The delegation had heard from Hyundai’s team manager Tolga Ozakinc.

Ozakinci justified the snap by saying that the person who took the pictures was a new employee in the stable, snapped the pictures on his own and took the pictures as a souvenir.

– The team manager also confirmed that the taking of photos of the competitors’ cars was in no way related to the team’s activities or took place at the team’s request.

According to Ozakinc, there is no reason or benefit for Hyundai to take pictures or collect data of the competitors in the Parc Ferme area, as the Rally of Greece did not have the usual morning maintenance after the opening of the Parc Ferme area.

– In any case, the manager of the stable admitted that the Parc Ferme rules had been broken. He apologized on behalf of his stable for the error of the stable employee, the announcement ended.

The person who took the pictures was also heard. He admitted his mistake and said he took responsibility for it, but said he was not aware of the provision in question.

Hyundai’s violation of the rules became a topic of conversation earlier this season, at the Safari rally in June. That’s when Neuville was caught cheating and his performance was rejected because a person belonging to Neuville’s background team had been getting to know the special tests without permission after the so-called familiarization period.

Read more: Rovanperä’s competitor Neuville admits cheating in the Safari Rally – a full-blown crash from an expert: “Yes, it’s really like a raccoon”