All three factory Honda cars of Norbert Michelisz, Gabriele Tarquini and Ryo Michigami have been excluded from the World Touring Car Championship results in China due to a breach of regulations around the fuel injector seal.
The stewards met to hear submission from the FIA Technical Delegate, the FIA Technical Department in Geneva and JAS Motorsport about the issue.
All three cars have been subsequently excluded, stripping Michelisz of 27.5 points that had hauled him up to third overall in the championship standings, and handing Volvo’s Thed Björk an additional two points in the drivers’ championship battle.
The full decision from the stewards reads:
“At the Race of China the Technical Delegate sealed a fuel injector from car #34 [Michigami]. The Competitor acknowledged that the sealed components were used in all competition at the Race of China and further that cars 2 and 5 used identical components.
“Following investigation, the FIA Technical Department determined that the fuel injectors used in the 3 cars were not in compliance with Article 263.003, 263.004 and 263.324 of Appendix J.
“At the hearing the Competitor agreed that the fuel injectors used were not in compliance with the Articles.
“The Competitor explained the sequence of events since 2012 and the basis on which the fuel injectors were used.”
It is the second time in as many years that all three factory Hondas have been disqualified from the results, following the Race of Morocco in 2016 where the cars were thrown out of the results for a technical infringement relating to the flat floors of the Civics.
Honda released a statement after the exclusion disagreeing with the findings of the submission.
“The decision of the FIA Race Stewards to exclude all Hondas from the results of the weekend is a particularly harsh and brutal one for the Castrol Honda World Touring Car team.
“Contrary to our understanding and expectation, a part of the engine of the Honda Civic WTCC was found not to comply with the FIA WTCC’s homologation procedures.”
Honda’s Large Project Leader of WTCC Development, Ryuichi Furukawa, explained that the manufacturer now accepts the decision and apologised to the team’s supporters.
“While we accept this unfortunate decision of the race stewards, we wish to stress that we have acted in good faith at all times,” said Furukawa. “Unfortunately, the way we have interpreted the homologation process is different to that of the FIA.
“We are incredibly disappointed with this judgement as the fight for both the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championships will now be extremely difficult. However, we will continue to push as hard as we possibly can at the final three rounds of the season to achieve our aim of winning the World Championship.
“We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to our fans and everybody else who has supported our WTCC efforts this year.”