McErlean and Fourmaux hit with penalties at EKO Acropolis Rally Greece

It is a bitter pill to swallow after such a demanding event. Sunday evening, both Josh McErlean and Adrien Fourmaux were handed one-minute penalties by the FIA stewards, effectively ruining their final standings at the EKO Acropolis Rally Greece. The rulings followed separate investigations into safety belt infringements, specifically that both drivers failed to have them fastened before their machines were in motion.

For M-Sport Ford’s McErlean, the timing is brutal; he was stripped of what would have been his best-ever finish, falling from fourth to sixth place after an incident on the rally’s penultimate stage. Frenchman Fourmaux, driving for Hyundai Motorsport, saw his own result slide from fifth to seventh following an incident on Saturday’s SS12.

The shake-up played perfectly into the hands of Toyota Gazoo Racing, as Elfyn Evans and Sami Pajari moved up the leaderboard to finish in fifth and fourth, respectively.