Having initially been classified in third place at the end of the final stage in Sardinia, Sebastien Loeb has been demoted to fourth after being hit with a two-minute time penalty by event stewards.

Loeb battled for the final position on the podium with Petter Solberg through the third day of the event, but moved ahead of the privateer Citroen driver on the first test of the afternoon.

However, the announcement then came that FIA stewards were examining the incident on day two which saw Loeb stop to replace a punctured tyre on stage eleven – losing a minute and dropping him from third to fourth.

The decision to examine the incident was related to whether or not Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena had broken regulations that state that crews must wear seat-belts at all times while the car is in motion prior to stopping to replace the punctured tyre.

While the Frenchman could have risked exclusion from the event, stewards elected to hand down a two-minute time penalty after the evidence revealed that Elena had unfastened his belts as the car was coming to a halt – with the offence being declared as minor as the C4 WRC wasn't travelling at competitive speed.

It capped a tough weekend for the Citroen team, with Dani Sordo struggling with turbo issues throughout the final day and accruing a total of four minutes in penalties to end up outside the top 20 overall.