Oliver Rowland has inherited victory in the first Misano Eprix after Antonio Felix da Costa was disqualified for a technical infringement.
The Porsche driver had beaten Nissan’s Rowland to the finish line by less than half a second in Saturday’s race, however he was stripped of his win in the final results.
Following technical scrutineering after the race, it was discovered that the Porsche was running with a throttle damper spring that was not listed as an approved optional item. Despite Porsche claiming that they had run with the same specification of part since the beginning of last season – when the Gen3 car was first introduced, they accepted that the part was not among those listed which were permitted for use.
In their decision, the stewards stated that “the competitor is responsible for the conformity of the car and even if there is no performance advantage the car has to comply with the regulations.”
“Due to this result,” they continued. “The car has to be disqualified from the race and the next cars move up in the classification.”
The disqualifications sees Oliver Rowland promoted to the victor of the first Misano race of the weekend, with Jake Dennis taking third and Maximilian Guenther gaining a podium position in third despite having finished fifth on the road. ERT driver Dan Ticktum has now recorded his and his team’s best ever finish in the series in fourth, with Mitch Evans in fifth.
Porsche have indicated their intention to appeal the disqualification and have 96 hours from the publication of the decision to formally do so.
The result sees Rowland extend his championship lead gained from the race to nine points over Dennis in second, with Guenther and Pascal Wehrlein now equal on points in fourth. A second race of the weekend at the modified Misano circuit will take place later today.
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