Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen were excluded from this editon of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal, after topping the classification at the end of the 22 stages of the event.
The decision of the Sporting Stewards came after the repport of the Technical Stewards who detected situations not conforming with the Homologation Form of the Citroen DS 3 WRC. The Sporting Stewards decision is as follows:
«The stewards after due deliberation decide:
1. That the clutch fitted to car nº 2 is not in conformity with the Homologation Form A5733 and therefore exclude car nº 2 from the event classification.
2. That the turbo (turbine wheel) fitted to car nº 2 appears not to be in conformity. However, the stewards suspend a decision on this matter and request that the FIA Technical Delegate carries out a further examination and reports the outcome to the stewards for further consideration.
The entrant is reminded of its right to appeal.»
Based in this decision, a new classification was published and Mads Ostberg and Jonas Andersson (Ford Fiesta WRC) were declared winners.
However, the classification is subject to the result of the appeal lodged by Citroën.