The Munnich Motorsport Honda WTCR outfit has successfully appealed against the exclusion of Esteban Guerrieri’s car in Slovakia Ring qualifying in July for a technical regulations breach.
Both Honda customer teams – Munnich and Boutsen Ginion Racing – lodged appeals against stewards’ decisions after the second qualifying session in Slovakia relating to maximum boost levels.
Those appeals meant that weekend’s second and third races took place based on provisional grids – with Guerrieri and the two Boutsen Ginion Civics of Tom Coronel and Benjamin Lessennes allowed to keep their qualifying starting positions. The race results also remained provisional, pending a hearing at the FIA’s International Court of Appeal.
Although Coronel’s and Lessennes’ cars were also found to have exceeded maximum engine speeds (rpm) in addition to the maximum boost pressure breach reported by the FIA, all three cases were judged at the same hearing in Paris last week.
While the court found in favour of Munnich, quashing the decision to exclude Guerrieri’s Civic, it upheld the decision to disqualify the Boutsen Ginion cars due to the secondary engine speeds offence.
Those exclusions have resulted in minor changes to the drivers’ championship.
Lessennes’ exclusion from fifth place in race two promotes BRC Hyundai driver Norbert Michelisz from seventh to sixth, allowing the Hungarian – third in the standings – to gain another two points on BRC teammate and current leader Gabriele Tarquini.
Michelisz is now 24 points behind Tarquini, and 21 short of second place Yvan Muller’s total.
That exclusion also promoted Guerrieri to eighth and his teammate Yann Ehrlacher – Honda’s highest-placed driver in the standings in fourth – to ninth, while Thed Bjork inherited the final point.
While Coronel did not finish race two in the points, he loses the eighth place he achieved in the weekend’s final race.
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