Subaru and Mitsubishi fined for underweight cars.

Subaru and Mitsubishi have been fined by the stewards of the Acropolis Rally after the cars of Petter Solberg, Chris Atkinson, Stephane Sarrazin and Gigi Galli were found to be underweight following the Athens super special last night.

All fours car were said to be under the minimum 1230 kg per car rule, as laid down by the sports governing body - the FIA. According to the official WRC website the cars were re-weighed back at the service park in Lamia, however as a 'discrepancy' was found between the two checks - that after the super special and back at the service park - the organisers opted to take a lenient approach.

A statement on the official Acropolis Rally website read:

"The Stewards after being informed that competitor cars - #5 (Petter Solberg), #6 (Chris Atkinson), #10 (Gigi Galli) and #21 (Stephane Sarrazin) were not technically conforming to the regulations during the rally - they were under the permitted weight - have decided to impose the following penalties:

"On the entrant Subaru World Rally Team for car #5, 30,000 Euros, for car #6, E20,000 and for car #21, E10,000. Also on the entrant Mitsubishi Motor Sports for car #10 a penalty of E10,000."

Whether this will be the end to the issue however remains to be seen - especially as the FIA recently came down very hard on BAR in F1 when their cars were found to be underweight at the San Marino GP. Interestingly BAR were also cleared by the stewards of the event before an FIA appeal overthrew that verdict and amongst other things excluded them from two events.