Skoda pleased to pick up Scotland win

Skoda UK driver Guy Wilks has been promoted from second to first following the stewards' decision today, with the exclusion also meaning a first win at this level for the double British Rally xhampion.

Skoda's Catherine Sleigh said: "It's strange to find out this far after the event that we've won but we're really pleased the record will show how Guy won the inaugural Rally of Scotland on his first drive in a Fabia. Skoda UK now has a 100 per cent record. We're pleased that, after Guy drove a fantastic event, a Skoda UK-backed car won.

"I would have loved my champagne moment, but I'm not going to get into that."

Meeke was stripped of his win after his Kronos Racing-prepared Peugeot was found to have an underweight front subframe. This was discovered at post-event scrutineering on Saturday and subsequently clarified by a meeting of the stewards in Edinburgh this afternoon.

Peugeot spokesman Ian Sedgwick admitted his company was disappointed by the decision.

"All I can say is that we're disappointed, but it seems it was a genuine mistake which caused this," he said. "There was no performance advantage from [running] this underweight part. We accept this decision and look forward to Monte Carlo. We won't be appealing the decision."

After such a strong season, Sedgwick admitted the stewards' decision had taken the edge off the Rally of Scotland - an event which would have been Meeke's fifth win of the year.

"It has spoiled it a little bit," he continued. "We took no advantage from this part at all, and we ran with a car which was actually overweight, but we have to abide by the decisions of the atewards. We have spoken to Peugeot Sport about this and, like I said, we accept the decision and move on and look ahead to next year which starts soon with the Monte Carlo Rally."

Meeke and Wilks were both unavailable for comment when AUTOSPORT tried to contact them.