Bugalski penalty doubled by stewards

The extra penalty drops Bugalski from fourth overall to eighth and out of the points. Citroen has decided not to protest the decision, which came after the French manufacturer had sought clarification on whether the original penalty should be halved.

Rally leader Bugalski suffered clutch problems on the uphill start of SS15 and failed to start in his designated slot. The Frenchman pushed his car to a position 'six to seven metres' behind the startline and eventually started the stage after the then second-placed Peugeot of Didier Auriol had started ahead of him.

The Citroen driver was subsequently penalised two minutes for his late start, dropping him from the lead to fourth. But the team argued that after firing up the car in the spot to which he'd pushed it, he was actually in a position to start the stage only one minute late and that the penalty should therefore be reduced to a minute.

Citroen said onboard footage proved its claims, but the stewards countered by saying that the same footage proved the Citroen Xsara T4 driver carried out a false start. When Bugalski got the green light to start, he did so from the position he had pushed the car to, and not from the start line of the stage, contravening article 19.4 of the WRC regulations. Under article 19.8, the stewards therefore awarded an extra two-minute penalty in addition to the original penalty for late starting.

Bugalski's extra penalty means freddy Loix moves to fourth, Carlos Sainz to fifth and Francois Delecour into the points in sixth. It also means that Richard Burns picks up an extra manufacturers' point for Subaru.