During this Monza Rallye Show, Valentino Rossi received two penalties.
The first, by 5 seconds at the end of the second special stage, because the Italian driver had hit the protections materializing a hairpin.
The second, more annoying because of 10 seconds only a few kilometers from the end of the rally, because his car was weighed 7 kg below the weight recorded on its regulatory form.
The error came from the team which supplied him with his Ford Fiesta WRC, which had weighed the car at the start with its additional headlight strip. Also, on the last day, once the additional headlights were removed, the car was no longer compliant.
Tony Cairoli, 4th in the Rally, experienced the same problem and the same penalty.
Valentino Rossi comments on this incident in the columns of GPone : «
This success reminds me a lot of that at Phillip Island in 2003. On that occasion, I received a ten-second penalty for overtaking under the yellow flag, but I was still able to win the race.
I think it was a very naive mistake on the part of the team. This one was wrong, because they weighed the car with the headlight strip. At first I didn't want to believe it, but I had to accept it.
I have to say that at that moment I thought I had lost. But I returned to the track with a knife between my teeth, and the penultimate stage was the most exciting. Then Bonanomi made a mistake and I won. »
To conclude on the subject, it should be noted that some Italian media believe that, for a technical irregularity and according to the regulations, Valentino Rossi should have been disqualified instead of receiving a simple time penalty. In their eyes, this therefore constitutes a scandal which discredits the organizers of the event, in fact accused of favoritism...
