Honda loses China points for ‘illegal’ fuel injectors

THE HONDA WORLD TOURING CAR SQUAD HAS lost its results from the Chinese round of the series after its cars were disqualified on technical grounds.

An investigation by the championship’s technical delegate ruled that the team’s fuel injectors were not compliant with the technical regulations. Privateer team Zengo Motorsport was also excluded due to an identical homologation issue with its fuel injectors.

Only half points were awarded for the aborted wet second race at the Ningbo circuit and the decision, which was announced at last weekend’s Motegi round, meant Honda lost all the points it had won in China.

The injectors of all the Honda Civic WTCCS were marked for further investigation during Friday’s scrutineering session in China, with the results of the races marked as provisional. Following a meeting in Geneva ahead of the racing getting underway in Japan, the FIA technical department ruled that the three cars of the factory Honda Racing Team JAS squad had not complied with the homologation procedure.

Honda accepted the decision, and put the transgression down to a difference in interpretation of the FIA homologation procedure. “While we accept this unfortunate decision of the race stewards, we wish to stress that we have acted in good faith at all times,” said Ryuichi Furukawa of Honda’s engine research and development team.

Honda was also excluded from the Marrakech round in 2016 when its car’s floor was found to not be compliant.