Stewards issue huge time penalty after driver HITS scrutineer

World Rally Championship leader Ott Tanak has been his with a major blow to his title hopes, with stewards handing out a severe punishment this weekend.

Tanak has been penalised five minutes at this week's Rally Finland and given a suspended penalty of 35 championship points for an incident which saw him injure a scrutineer.

Friday's seventh stage of the rally saw Tanak leave the road and hit a tree, damaging his cooling system in the process. As such, the Estonian was keen to keep his car moving as much as possible to keep cool air coming over the engine.

However, stewards found that he left stop control after the stage without being signalled to depart, striking a scrutineer with the front of his car and inflicting minor injuries.

WRC leader set to lose top spot

The stewards' report on the incident read: “On Friday 1st August 2025, after the Stop Control of SS7 (Saarikas 2), car No. 8 arrived at tyre checking and stopped at the direction of a scrutineer. At that moment, the driver of car No. 8 waved his hands asking the scrutineer to move away.

“In the meantime, another scrutineer started checking the tyres. When the tyre scanning was almost at the end and before receiving the signal to leave, the driver accelerated abruptly, striking a scrutineer with the front right bumper and causing minor injuries, including bloody scratches to the left knee.”

The report also included Tanak's side of events, writing: “Mr. Tanak tried to explain the problem to the scrutineer by using hand gestures as it was difficult to communicate. When he thought the checks were finished, he immediately moved from his position without realising that he had hit the scrutineer.

“The driver apologised to the Stewards and stated that he was not aware that the scrutineer had been injured. He stated that had he known that he had hit the scrutineer, he would have stopped immediately. Mr. Tanak also offered to apologise personally to the injured official.”

The 2019 champion came into Rally Finland leading Elfyn Evans by just one point in the standings, with five of the season's 14 events remaining after this week. However, he's now unlikely to leave Scandinavia with that lead intact.

At time of writing, Evans sits fourth in the event's standings with just two stages to go, while Tanak's penalty means he's languishing in 14th – a significant drop from the seventh place he'd occupy if he got those five minutes back.

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