Geely Cyan Racing fined €10,000 for tyre error

Geely Cyan Racing has been fined €10,000 for having an incorrectly marked tyre on Thed Björk’s car during the final FIA TCR World Tour of the weekend at Inje Speedium.

The Swedish driver finished second after a close battle with race winner and points leader Mikel Azcona.

The stewards found in the post-race checks that the front left tyre of Björk’s Geely Preface TCR was not on the list of declared tyres that are submitted before the race.

The team stated that this was because of the late arrival of the team’s equipment to the race which meant that the team had to register the tyres manually instead of digitally.

“The Team Manager was summoned and heard. He explained that, due to the late arrival of the Team’s equipment, it had not been possible to register the tyres electronically.

“The registration was therefore carried out manually. During this process, he made a typographical error by transposing the final two digits of the tyre barcode concerned (“…47” instead of “…74”).

“The Stewards took into consideration that the container containing the Team’s equipment only arrived on Thursday night and that the tyre declaration had been submitted before its arrival.

“During the investigation, the Stewards also heard the representative of the tyre manufacturer, who confirmed that an error had been made in the barcode registered for Car #111. The manufacturer further confirmed that the declared barcode 76044447 did not exist in its production records.”

Instead of excluding Björk from the race, the stewards decided to fine the team €10,000.

“Having examined all the evidence and considered the circumstances surrounding the beginning of the Event, the Stewards determine that the incorrect tyre declaration resulted from an administrative error. Nevertheless, it remains the responsibility of the Competitor to verify and submit an accurate list of the registered tyres.”