After finding an alleged illegality with the clutch and turbocharger of the Citroen DS3 from Hirvonen, the organization decided to disqualify the Finnish driver and withdraw his first victory in Portugal and 15th in his career.
According to the organization, the decision of the sports commissioners came after the report presented by the technical commissioners, “who detected non-compliant situations in Citroen“, namely that the “ clutch mounted on car number 2 does not comply with Homologation Form A5733 and therefore exclude car number 2 from the event classification“.
In addition to the clutch, “ the turbo (turbine) mounted on car number 2 does not appear to be in compliance ", as quoted by the organization, which added that the commissioners "suspend the decision on this matter and ask the FIA technical delegate to carry out a more detailed examination, waiting for this report for a future decision".
Citroen will appeal the decision, but what is certain is that a new classification has already been published declaring the Norwegian, Mads Ostberg, the winner of the 2012 Rally de Portugal. As well as Hirvonen, Ostberg debuts with a victory in Portugal , albeit in the most unwanted way, the Nordic driver did not fail to make an excellent rally.
Provisional classification of Rally de Portugal:
1. Mads Ostberg (NOR/Ford Fiesta) 04:21:16,1s
2. Evgeny Novikov (RUS/Ford Fiesta) +01m33.2s
3. Petter Solberg (NOR / Ford Fiesta), +01m55.5s
4. Nasser All Attiyah (QAT /Citroen DS3) +06m05.8s
5. Martin Prokop (CZE/Ford Fiesta) +06m09.2s
6. Dennis Kuipers (NLD/Ford Fiesta) +06m47.3s
7. Sébastien Ogier (FRA /Skoda Fabia S2000) +07m09,0s
8. Thierry Neuville (BEL/Citroen DS3), +08m37.9s
9. Jari Ketomaa (FIN/Ford Fiesta RS), +09m52.8s
10. Peter Van Merksteijn (NLD/Citroën DS3) +10m11.0s
11. Dani Sordo (ESP/Mini WRC) +12m23.7s
…
15. Armindo Araújo (POR/Mini WRC) +21m03.9s