APPEAL COULD BE PENDING

+ Click to Enlarge RAGING BULLS: France's Sebastien Loeb powers his Citroen C4 through the dust of northern New South Wales on the way to winning the 2009 Rally of Australia on Sunday. He was later penalised 30sec and relegated to second. Image: AFP

September 6, 2009

Five-times World champion Sebastien Loeb was stripped of his victory and relegated to second place in the Rally of Australia on Sunday because of a technical infringement with his Citroen.

A spokesperson for the governing IAF said stewards had ruled that the front anti-roll bar links on the Citroen of Frenchman Loeb, Spain's Dani Sordo and France's Sebastien Ogier did not conform to regulations.

Each was handed a one-minute penalty.

That meant Loeb, who had won the rally by 12.5sec, was relegated from first to second behind Ford's championship leader Mikko Hirvonen.

Sordo remained in third place despite the penalty while Ogier dropped from fourth to fifth.

The spokesperson said Citroen could appeal.

Citroen Racing boss Olivier Quesnel later apologised to Loeb.

"The difference had no effect on either the performance or reliability of the car. It was simply due to an administrative error and did not stem from any desire to cheat," he said.

"I would personally like to apologise to Sebastien, who scored a superb victory this weekend."- Reuters