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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Formula E
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Peter
14th April 2024, 10:47
This is exactly why I stopped watching formula e you can’t take a series serieus when constantly winners get disqualified.
Yaru (@yaru)
14th April 2024, 11:13
Correct decision. It’s your job as the team to make sure your car is following the spec……….especially in a spec series, regardless of whether it gives a performance advantage of not.
MacLeod (@macleod)
15th April 2024, 8:03
It’s just a normal spring for the throttle not the suspension so nothing todo with performance of the car.
Matthew Ellis
16th April 2024, 9:06
Disagree – a throttle spring that is stronger or weaker than the standard spring will affect how the driver controls the car.
As an example, the standard clutch spring on a Landrover Defender (pre 2016, not the new version) is notoriously strong making for a heavy clutch and many aching legs after getting stuck in traffic. There is a lighter spring available as a replacement which massively reduces the effort needed to operate the clutch and in turn makes driving a Defender in traffic far less tiring.
Will the spring in question have a significant effect on the driver or cars performance? Unknown, but when the win was by 0.5 seconds then the possibility of it making a difference is real.
SadF1fan
14th April 2024, 11:56
It is again a typical thing.
Cars get supplied with an illegal part. The FIA changes the rules during the season, apparently/allegedly without informing the teams.
Therefore there is another avoidable scandal clouting a race series, and everybody involved looks like a bunch of amateurs.
What a mess.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
16th April 2024, 1:44
everyone should be disqualified. and banned. why not inspect before the race instead of choosing who gets removed from the rostrum. this is only political.