After an incident-strewn set of races at Sochi Autodrom, it is perhaps surprising that we haven’t seen more penalties awarded by the WTCR stewards this weekend.
The largest punishment dealt out by the officials was a 30-second time penalty, awarded to ROSNEFT Lada Sport wildcard Kirill Ladygin. The TCR Russia champion was found to be responsible for Bence Boldizs’ major shunt in the second race of the day, having initiated contact with the Hungarian’s CUPRA after losing the rear end of his Vesta.
However, due to the lack of finishers in that race, Ladygin only drops one position in the final rankings from thirteenth to fourteenth, behind his team-mate Mikhail Mityaev.
Elsewhere, Frederic Vervisch was adjudged to have started the first race of the day from an incorrect grid position. As such, the Belgian has been handed a 5-second time penalty, which drops him from third to sixth in the final rankings.
This boosts Gilles Magnus up into that final podium spot, with Nathanael Berthon now classified in fourth ahead of Yann Ehrlacher in fifth.
Finally, it was announced at the end of race two that Berthon himself would be under investigation for his use of track limits. However, no wrongdoing was found, and so the Frenchman has been allowed to keep his third-place finish from that race.