Rally Italia Sardegna 2018

[sonnybobiche]

The rule itself states:

"The use or receipt by the crew of any manufactured materials (solid or liquid, unless supplied by the
organisers), spare parts, tools or equipment other than those carried in the competing car or the presence of
team personnel as defined in Art. 48.2."

What the article says is this: You're never allowed to receive any good, solid or liquid, unless the good is supplied (i.e. given) to you by the organisers. In this case the first requirement is met due to a time card being a solid material. So far, so good. Hence the time card could only have been legally given to Ingrassia by the organiser, not by Tänak.

In other words: The rule has nothing to do with the fact that the time cards are issued by the organisers, but the fact of the matter is whether the time card in question is supplied (i.e. given) to a competitor by anyone who isn't an organiser.

Theoretically, if the time card had been given to Ingrassia by a steward (who went to the next time control by foot or bike), the acceptance of the time card would have been legal as per Art. 2.13. Since it was given ("supplied", cf. the rules) by Tänak, the reception constituted a breach of the rules.

Therefore, the decision of the stewards is completely in accordance with Art. 2.13 of the rule book.

I disagree. What is prohibited is "The use or receipt by the crew of any manufactured materials (solid or liquid, unless supplied by the organizers), spare parts tools or equipment other than those carried in the competing car or the presence of team personnel as defined in Art. 48.2"

So what the article says is this: The crew are not allowed to use or receive any manufactured material except those supplied by the organizer... The term "supplied" refers to the nature of the manufactured material, i.e. receipt of manufactured materials supplied by the organizers is not prohibited. If "supplied" were intended to refer to the process of how an item is received by the crew, it would come at the end Art. 2.13, because it would also apply to the use or receipt of "spare parts, tools or equipment..."

Therefore, "supplied" can be read to mean that any item that was initially supplied by the organizers is ok, and that sort of seems to be how the stewards read it, since they mention under extenuating circumstances that "the time card [...] was not a new item received".

Even if you somehow interpret "supplied by the organizers" to refer to how the item is received by the crew, the fact that the organizers gave the time card to Tanak with the intention of Tanak bringing it to Ogier means that the organizers effectively "supplied" the card to Ogier. The only way to argue otherwise would be if there was an explicit rule that clearly stated that the manufactured material must be physically given directly to the crew by the organizers each time.