The penalty is given in the 4th speed section. It turned out that Y. Seaidan’s co-driver A. Kuzmičius, a Russian representing the UAE, was not wearing the Dakar rally fans watch in the car.
Noting this, the referees imposed a solid time penalty.
The team risks disqualification if this instruction for rally participants is violated again.
The Dakar Rally is sponsored by the Swiss watch company Rebellion Timepieces.
According to the contract between the organizers of the rally and the participants, the watches are delivered to each runner participating in the rally and his team member.
During the 4th stage it was noticed that A. Kuzmičius was not looking at the fans of the Dakar, but at his watch. According to clause 9.1.6 of the FIA Regulations, “it is not permitted to compete in a competition vehicle with a watch other than the model specified by the sponsor”.
A. Kuzmičius said that he thought the given watch was just a gift from the sponsors and did not know that during the rally it is the only model allowed during the race. He also added that the team needs a watch to tell the time.
The rally commissioners explained that ignorance of the rules does not exempt from liability.
On Sunday, Y. Seaidanas and A. Kuzmičius took 2nd place.
🏁 Phase 8️⃣ – T4 🔧
First 3 provisionals:
🥇 Jerem ías Gonz ález Ferioli
🥈 Yasir Seaidan
🥉 Gerard FarrésComplete results and ranking 👉https://t.co/cx02oSZAcp#Dakar2023 pic.twitter.com/JsU0jJ30M6
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 8, 2023
R. Baciuška leads the general classification, the Arab-Russian duet is in 28th place.
#Dakar2023 : Yasir Seaidan received a 30-minute time penalty on Stage 4 and faces race disqualification entirely because co-driver Alexey Kuzmich was wearing a cockpit watch not made by Dakar Rally partner Rebellion Timepieces (the only approved model). pic.twitter.com/KJPXFjrzkz
— Justin Nguyen 🐀 (@ZappaOMatic) January 5, 2023
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