Rallying-Tanak handed five minute penalty and suspended points deduction

Hyundai's world rally championship leader Ott Tanak has been handed a five-minute penalty and a suspended 35-point deduction after an incident with a scrutineer at Rally Finland.

Stewards reported that the Estonian stopped for tyre checking as directed at the end of Friday's stage seven but then accelerated abruptly before being given the signal to depart.

The car's front bumper struck a scrutineer, who suffered minor injuries.

Tanak was ruled to be in breach of the International Automobile Federation's sporting code regarding unsafe conduct, failure to follow scrutineer instructions, and misconduct.

The time penalty dropped the driver to 29th overall in Finland, with the rally finishing on Sunday.

The website reported that Tanak had apologised and told a hearing on Friday evening that his car had cooling problems after he hit a tree on the seventh stage and he had wanted to keep the car moving to avoid overheating.

Tanak is one point clear of Toyota's Elfyn Evans in the championship.