originally posted at http://www.wrc.com/News.aspx?PO_ID=3142&lang=en_GB
Marcus Gronholm’s first win for the Peugeot 307 WRC is under threat after event Cyprus Rally organisers found a potential problem with the water pump on the engines of both Peugeot and Citroen’s works entries in post-event scrutineering.

The 307s of event winner Gronholm and fifth-placed team-mate Harri Rovanpera and the Citroen Xsaras of second-placed Sebastian Loeb and fourth-placed Carlos Sainz will be subject to further checks on Wednesday 19 May, at which point the rally result will be confirmed.

Until then the result will remain provisional. If the four cars are excluded from the event, then Ford’s Markko Martin will be handed the win and a potential 19-point lead in the drivers’ championship standings. The Subarus of reigning world champion Petter Solberg and team-mate Mikko Hirvonen would also be promoted to the podium.

Both the Peugeot 307 and Citroen Xsara WRCs use the same basic engine, the XU7, and World Rally Championship homologation rules require that the standard water pump is used. Former world champion Colin McRae’s Ford Focus was excluded from third place on the 1999 Monte Carlo rally, the car’s debut, after a similar problem was found.

Everything turned out to be fine for Citroën: the Xsara WRC passed the final inspection following the Cyprus Rally without any problem. The water pumps of the Xsaras were found to be legal despite earlier doubts. Sebastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz will not be disqualified from the Cyprus Rally.

The situation might be different for Peugeot. The French team will have to meet the FIA on Wednesday 26 May at 11:00 in Paris to answer the stewards' questions.

The final results of the Cyprus Rally will be official following this meeting. Either Gronholm and Rovanpera's results will be confirmed or they might be disqualified. If the two Peugeot drivers are disqualified, Sebastien Loeb would be the new winner, followed by Markko Martin and Carlos Sainz.

The FIA has excluded the Peugeot 307 WRCs of Marcus Gronholm and Harri Rovanpera from the results of the recent Cyprus Rally, because of an irregularity with their water pumps. Gronholm won the event on the road, and Rovanpera came in fifth. Sebastien Loeb now takes the win and WRC points lead.

The Citroen Xsara WRCs of Loeb and team-mate Carlos Sainz were also subject to an investigation into the legality of their water pumps, but the FIA has given the Citroen parts a clean bill of health. Loeb is therefore promoted to Cyprus rally winner and Sainz moves up to third place.

The ruling also drops Gronholm from the head of the championship standings down to fourth place, behind Loeb, Markko Martin and Petter Solberg. It will also make it extremely hard for Peugeot to rejoin the battle for the manufacturers' title, in which it had been in contention with Ford and Citroen and well ahead of Subaru.

Peugeot had the right to appeal against the decision, but although it remains confident that it has gained no advantage from the water pump, it says that it is not going to lodge an appeal.

Peugeot Sport was forced to admit to the Cyprus Rally stewards that the water pumps fitted to the works 307s were neither standard nor available as spares for the homologated version of the XU7 engine from Peugeot dealers.

The rally cars’ pumps used plastic rather than brass impellors. Plastic impellors are fitted and supplied to Peugeot by two manufacturers. In one case, the diameter is 68.7 millimetres, in the other 69 mm. The rally cars’ impellors were 60 mm in diameter.

Team manager Nicola Gullino and chief engineer Michel Nandan conceded that the documents they had produced were neither a maintenance booklet nor a spare parts catalogue. It is believed that the pump is used in a standard two-litre Peugeot engine.