FIA hits WRC driver with severe action after striking official

Hyundai WRC star Ott Tanak was given a five-minute penalty and a suspended points deduction by the FIA for striking an official at last week’s Rally Finland.

Tanak, who won the WRC title in 2019, was nursing an overheating issue after crashing on a stage and colliding with a tree, which caused heavy damage to his i20N Rally 1 car.

FIA issues suspended points deduction after Ott Tanak strikes Rally Finland scrutineer

With the radiator fans broken, Tanak was under instruction by his team – led by former Renault F1 team principal Cyril Abiteboul – to keep his car moving to feed air to his radiators and control temperatures.

The situation reached a head at the stop control of stage seven in Finland, where Tanak struck and injured a scrutineer while tyre checks were taking place, causing ‘bloody scratches’ to the official’s knee.

The FIA found Tanak to be in breach of Articles 12.2.1.h, 12.2.1.i and 12.2.1.l of the 2025 FIA International Sporting Code, relating to unsafe conduct, failure to follow scrutineer instructions and misconduct.

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Tanak was given a five-minute time penalty, dropping him from 10th to 29th at that point of the rally, as well as a suspended 35-point deduction.

The points deduction will only come into effect in the event of a similar incident arising over the course of the remaining five rounds of the 2025 season.

Tanak, who eventually recovered to finish 10th in Finland, currently occupies fourth place in the 2025 drivers’ standings, trailing championship leader and Toyota driver Elfyn Evans by 13 points.

The stewards’ report 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.”

It added: “Mr. Tänak 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. Tänak also offered to apologise personally to the injured official.

“As the driver did not pay due attention to the official, he created an unsafe situation and, as a consequence, his car hit the scrutineer, thus causing minor injuries.

“This constitutes a breach of Art. 12.2.1.h of the 2025 FIA International Sporting Code.

“In this case the reckless reaction of Mr. Tänak cannot be mitigated because they were facing overheating problems on their car, which remains under the competitor’s responsibility.”

Tanak’s penalty capped a miserable weekend for Hyundai, which saw reigning world champion Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux suffer punctures on the same stage.

Neuville, who is yet to win a rally this season, went on to concede that his hopes of retaining his title in 2025 are over.

Hyundai’s troubles saw Toyota dominate the event by claiming the top-five positions with Kalle Rovanpera, the two-time WRC champion, collecting his second victory of the season to reduce team-mate Evans’ championship lead to three points.

Eight-time WRC champion Sebastien Ogier, who sits level on points with Tanak in third place in the standings, announced this week that he will compete at each of the last five rounds of the season, having initially planned a part-time program in 2025.

Tanak made no reference to his clash with the scrutineer in Hyundai’s official report from Rally Finland.

He said: “A difficult weekend, but what’s done is done, and now we focus on the next rounds.

“We’re going into rougher gravel events where we were very competitive at the start of the season, so I am expecting to be back on the pace again.

“The team had some small troubles that had big consequences, but that’s rallying – it can be cruel, but it is the nature of this sport.

“The championship is still open, so the fight is still on.”

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