Volkswagen appeal rejected – Rydell keeps title

The Swedish Automobile Sports Federation has rejected the protest from Volkswagen on Rickard Rydell’s overtaking maneuver under supposed yellow flags in the final STCC race of 2011.

The appeal was rejected as the appeal was not handed in to stewards in written form within one hour of the initial decision.

The Volkswagen team recently stated that they were told by the stewards that the written form for the appeal was not needed, something SBF dismisses in a statement issued today:

“The Board believes that it can not be considered evidence that any misrepresentation or misstatement occurred that justifies the requirement of the form in writing to be waived. The responsibility for protest and appeal is always on the contestants and therefore the appeal is dismissed.”

Volkswagen are able to appeal this decision within a week to the SBF Legal Committee.

While Volkswagen claims that there is clear video evidence of that Rydell passed under yellow flags, SBF stated in an interview with SVT that they have not seen the footage.
“I am not sure what you are talking about. We have not seen the pictures, so I do no know anything about that,” said Christer Landén, SBF Discipline Committee Investigator.

Volkswagen driver Ekblom previously stated that he was confident for a favourable decision in the matter, but not after Landén’s statement.
“It sounds worrying. The images clearly show what happened. It is rather troublesome if they haven’t even seen them. It is hard to compete with a driver that gets away with overtaking under yellows. It is rather hard to win then. Now, don’t get me wrong, Rydell is a worthy champion, but so are we and we have fought hard all year. Then this happens with three laps left,” said Ekblom.