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The stewards handed Lefebvre a 15-second penalty, but he keeps his WRC2 win
Stéphane Lefebvre has retained his WRC2 win on Ypres Rally Belgium despite a penalty after the finish, which was triggered by an appeal from reigning champion Andreas Mikkelsen.
Former World Rally Championship factory driver Lefebvre was a heavy favorite for victory before the rally, given his dominant streak in the Belgian national championship aboard his DG Sport-prepared Citroën C3 Rally2.
That expectation became reality with an 18.1-second victory over Mikkelsen, effectively taking seven valuable points away from the Toksport driver in his quest to retain the WRC2 crown.
But Toksport had noticed that Lefebvre had taken a very aggressive line through a right-hander around 7.5 miles into both passes of the Wijtschate test, putting his entire car off the road while doing so. It filed two individual protests against Lefebvre for SS11 and SS15 respectively.
Toksport had alleged that Lefebvre’s route of cutting the corner entirely with all four wheels represented a breach of Article 19.2 of the WRC sporting regulations, which concerns event road books and their “compulsory itinerary which must be followed”.
After reviewing video evidence and speaking to team managers at both Toksport and DG Sport, rally stewards concluded that Lefebvre’s aggressive corner cut constituted a deviation from the road book’s stated itinerary.
Lefebvre was handed a five-second penalty for the first infraction, then a 10-second penalty for the second pass as it represented his second infraction on the same rally.
But with an 18.1s lead in his pocket at the finish line, it meant he kept his WRC2 class win by a mere 3.1s.
It was a change of roles for Mikkelsen, who had previously been punished by stewards for the same rules breach back in 2014.
When driving for Volkswagen at Rally Poland, Mikkelsen had taken a cut across a field in attempt to save time, for which he was handed a €5000 fine.
Carefully taken corner cuts are an essential part of keeping stage times down on Ypres Rally. Many cuts are about opening up the corner radius for faster exists, and thus carrying more speed onto subsequent straights.
This was also partly the case here; Lefebvre was trying to open up the following left-hander by aggressively cutting the preceding right – all while saving some time by simply taking the most direct route through the corner.
The offending corner was a square right, with lots of loose gravel immediately inside the apex and then a grassy verge that was a full car’s width, before a small drop into the field below.
Lefebvre’s problem is one that’s a rarity in rallying but commonplace in Formula 1. He effectively broke track limits, just on a special stage in the Belgian countryside instead.
As the stewards themselves explained when handing out Lefebvre’s time penalties: “The compulsory itinerary of the rally is defined in the Road Book by the road direction diagrams and between the road direction diagrams (as per this case), by the defined roadway.”
In other words, deviations from the roads laid out in the road book are not allowed. And in Lefebvre’s case, none of the wheels on his Citroën were on the defined roadway when taking this corner cut.
In this case, leaving the ‘defined roadway’ was considered to have given Lefebvre a competitive advantage: “The corner in question is a very typical place where time can be gained if the defined roadway, as stipulated in Art. 19.2 of 2022 FIA WRC Sporting Regulations, is not used,” read their statement. “After the Tarmac edge, the road broadens to a mixture of concrete and gravel.”
On the second pass, Lefebvre’s cut was larger than the first and it showed – he even bypassed the concrete and gravel portion and went fully onto the grassy verge. It showed in the splits: he’d gone from being 1.7s up on Mikkelsen after 8.8km to 4.6s up after 12.3km, right after the offending corner in question.
While Lefebvre did break the rules, he also probably has reason to feel a little hard done by. Unlike Mikkelsen’s brazen trip through a field in Poland eight years before, the Belgian championship leader’s departure from the road was minor in comparison.
There was also nothing physically stopping him from cutting – something that FIA sporting delegate Timo Rautianen felt was less than ideal.
“Mr. Rautiainen strongly suggested to the organizer that some preventive measures should be taken, especially in the two very obvious locations brought forward by the team,” further read the penalty decision.
“The organizer refused to take any measures, due to the large number of possible locations and lack of suitable material at such short notice, as the matter was only raised by the team after reconnaissance.”
That said, Lefebvre had also been warned, in effect. A clerk of the course communication had been circulated among all competitors just after 8am on Friday, reminding them not to break Article 19.2 by deviating from the road book.
Toksport had event sent its team member Bernt Kollevold out to the corner in question and filmed all the Rally1 cars coming through ahead of Lefebvre and Mikkelsen.
It seemed it knew the warning might not be heeded.
Tags: Stephane Lefebvre, WRC 2022, WRC2 2022, Ypres Rally 2022
Publish Date August 21, 2022 DirtFish https://www-dirtfish.imgix.net/2022/08/Lefebvre09BEL22tb201-1.jpg?fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=520&ixlib=php-1.2.1&q=70&w=780&wpsize=entry-main August 21, 2022
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Copyright © 2022 DirtFish, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subaru Impreza STI Sedan & Hatchback Features
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels aiding in the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: Our Subaru STi’s use a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder Turbo-charged Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru STi is equipped with an advanced all-wheel-drive system with an active center differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. In order for the wheels to fit on our Subaru STi’s, we had to convert them to a Group N brake setup.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels to aid the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: The Subary BRZ is powered by a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru BRZ is rear-wheel-drive and equipped with a limited slip differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. Luckily with the Subaru BRZ’s, the stock brake system is more than adequate for our programs.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
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