WTCC: Penalty costs Citroen MAC3 win

Citroen has lost its victory in the World Touring Car Championship's MAC3 time trial at the Hungaroring after receiving a 30-second retrospective penalty, handing victory to Honda.

The champion marque had set the fastest time on track after Yvan Muller completed its run in a time of 3m41.538s, which was faster than Honda or Lada were able to achieve. But Mehdi Bennani, who once more was selected to contest the time trial alongside factory drivers Jose Maria Lopez and Muller, was handed a 30s penalty by the stewards for exceeding track limits at Turn 11 on the first of the two laps and this stripped Citroen of the fastest time.

Tiago Monteiro completed Honda's time trial 0.174s slower than Citroen's run, only for the JAS Motorsport-run team to inherit its first outright win in the new-for-2016 contest following Bennani's penalty.

Citroen's margin of victory had been the largest in MAC3 since its adoption at the start of the season, having topped Lada by 0.030s at Paul Ricard, before it and Honda recorded identical times last weekend at the Slovakia Ring.

Lada's Hugo Valente was also hit with a 30s penalty following a jump-start on the Russian marque's run. Under MAC3 regulations, any manufacturer whose run is not completed within 15s of the second car crossing the line fails to score points.

Originally on Autosport.com