BP-Ford maintains world title lead despite results change

Reigning world champion BP-Ford maintained its lead in the FIA World Rally Championship manufacturers' standings despite a time penalty following last night's finish of the Rally de Portugal.  Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen and team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen each received a five-minute penalty after this fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.  It dropped Grönholm and Hirvonen from second and third respectively to fourth and fifth.

Event scrutineers drew the team's attention to the fact that the rear side windows on the Ford Focus RS World Rally Cars of both crews did not comply with the homologation form of the car in terms of thickness.  The matter was referred to the FIA stewards of the meeting.

Team representatives attended a meeting of the stewards at which they accepted that a breach of regulations had taken place.  The penalty was accepted by the team and no appeal was made.

"We were disappointed to learn from the scrutineers that the team made an error," explained BP-Ford team director Malcolm Wilson.  "We will launch a detailed investigation into how this could have happened at M-Sport."

Despite the time penalty, BP-Ford retains the lead of the manufacturers' championship and is now eight points ahead.  Grönholm is now second in the drivers' standings, one point behind Sébastien Loeb.  Hirvonen remains third.

Amended final positions 1.  S Loeb/D Elena                      F               Citroen C4              3hr 53min 33.1sec 2.  P Solberg/P Mills                   N               Subaru Impreza  3hr 56min 47.0sec 3.  D Sordo/M Marti                     E               Citroen C4              3hr 58min 38.4sec 4.  M Grönholm/T Rautiainen     FIN             Ford Focus RS   3hr 59min 10.2sec 5.  M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen               FIN             Ford Focus RS   4hr 00min 41.2sec 6.  D Carlsson/D Giraudet               S               Citroen Xsara           4hr 01min 46.3sec  7.  G Galli/G Bernacchini               I               Citroen Xsara           4hr 03min 12.7sec 8.  J-M Latvala/M Anttila               FIN             Ford Focus RS   4hr 04min 18.0sec 9.  M Stohl/I Minor                     A               Citroen Xsara           4hr 06min 19.1sec 10 A Mikkelsen/O Floene         N               Ford Focus RS   4hr 07min 24.7sec

Drivers                                                 1.  S Loeb                         38pts                        2.  M Grönholm             37pts                3.  M Hirvonen             30pts                4.  D Sordo                        19pts                        5.  P Solberg                      16pts                        6.  H Solberg                      11pts       

Manufacturers 1. BP-Ford                        67pts 2. Citroen Total                  59pts 3. Subaru                         27pts 4. Stobart VK M-Sport Ford      21pts 5. OMV Kronos Citroen     21pts