Xavier de Soultrait was already facing an uphill battle if he wanted to catch teammate Brock Heger and win his second consecutive title in the Dakar Rally’s SSV class, but his chances seem to be out the window now barring a miracle.

On Wednesday, the FIA handed Soultrait a 60-minute time penalty and a suspended disqualification after his on-board surveillance camera (OBSC) was found to have been covered up during Stage #9 the day before. Besides being a violation of Article 13.5.2 in the Cross-Country Rally Sporting Regulations, the stewards found it suspicious that the event occurred moments after Soultrait had shut off his Polaris’ engine.

The OBSC is used by the FIA to monitor everything going on in the cockpit; not every car has one, with only a select handful receiving one at the choice of the federation. When one is installed, Article 13.5.2 states “team members or third parties are forbidden to interfere with or move any such device.”

Soultrait’s Sébastien Loeb Racing crew explained his OBSC was right next to a separate onboard camera used by the ASO for highlight reels, the latter of which is often covered up with a glove whenever Soultrait had to stop to address a mechanical issue. In Stage #9’s case, he stopped multiple times because of a malfunctioning dashboard, which included restarting the engine. During one of these resets, the crew surmised they might have accidentally covered the OBSC in the process.

While the stewards found little reason to not believe them, a penalty was still imposed since SLR violated the rules regardless of circumstance. A full disqualification was considered, but the FIA opted for a suspended one—meaning he would not be disqualified as long as it does not happen again—since the team legitimately made an error that they doubt would be repeated.

“The purpose of the OBSC is to ensure fair competition during the event and to ensure that safety requirements are strictly observed,” reads the stewards’ report. “The covering of the OBSC shows a disregard for the objectives pursued by the installation of the OBSC, i.e. it defeats the purpose of ensuring a fair sporting competition and the respect of safety requirements.”

Although Soultrait was second in SSV behind Heger after ten stages, he trailed by 1:49:53 with two legs to go. With the one-hour penalty, he now falls to third behind Francisco López Contardo, who was already over two hours back of Heger. The time addition also relegates his Stage #9 finish from eighth in class to 23rd. Soultrait won Stage #1.

The FIA has generally avoided disqualifying cars entirely so far in the race, instead opting for time penalties and suspended DSQs. Four other drivers—Adam Kuś, Ahmed Al-Kuwari, Stage #7 winner Lucas Moraes, and Guoyu Zhang—have also received them because of infractions related to cell phones.

Featured image credit: Charly Lopez / ASO