Honda have had their exclusion from the World Touring Car Championship races in Hungary overturned, but their exclusion from the results in Marrakech, including a 1-2-3 finish, remains.
Honda Racing Team JAS appealed their exclusion from the results, which was announced two weeks’ ago at the Race of Germany, leading to a hearing at the International Court of Appeal on Thursday 9 June 2016.
The appeal was lodged by the Automobile Club d’Italia – Commissione Sportiva Automobilistica Italiana (ACI-CSAI) on behalf of the licence holder JAS Motorsport.
The manufacturer had been excluded from the results of the two meetings due to the flat floor of the Civic not being in compliance with the regulations. Specifically, the parts were considered to not be matching the homologated parts, leading to breach of Articles 263.003 and 263.004 of Appendix J.
The full decision of the court is thus:
Decision of the International Court of Appeal
The Court, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions,
- declared the appeal admissible;
- decided to set aside the decisions No. 1, 3 and 5 dated 26 May 2016 of the Stewards of the Race of Germany related to the Race of Hungary counting towards the 2016 FIA World Touring Car Championship;
- decided to uphold the decisions No. 6, 7 and 8 dated 26 May 2016 of the Stewards of the Race of Germany related to the Race of Morocco counting towards the 2016 FIA World Touring Car Championship.
The decision effectively restores just one of Honda’s podium finishes, Tiago Monteiro’s third-place finish in Budapest.
More significantly, the exclusion from the results in Morocco hands Citroën’s José María López an even greater points lead. The gap, which had previously stood at 69 points, has now been extended to a huge 91 points over Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani.