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M-Sport's Ogier retains WRC points lead as FIA deems gearbox legal

Sebastien Ogier has retained his World Rally Championship lead after the FIA passed the gearbox of his M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC as legal.

The transmission from Ogier's car was sealed at post-event scrutineering following Rally Mexico, where the Frenchman finished second to Citroen's Kris Meeke, and taken for inspection by the FIA in France following suggestions it could be underweight and not complying with the car's homologation papers.

M-Sport team members were present at the inspection, which was conducted by WRC technical delegate Jerome Toquet.

During the examination, the transmission from the last round of the series was compared with the unit put forward for homologation by M-Sport at the start of the season.

Following that process, the stewards of Rally Mexico have issued a decision which states: "On Monday 20th March, 2017 the stewards received a report from the FIA technical delegate stating that, during the re-check at the premises of the FIA (Valleiry, France), the gearboxes were compared to the deposited homologated gearbox and were found to comply.

"The stewards decide to take no further action."

Had Ogier been excluded, he would have been stripped of the 22 points he scored and consequently dropped to third in the points behind Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala and M-Sport's second driver Ott Tanak.

Instead Ogier retains an eight-point lead over Latvala.

Zdroj: autosport.com