The breach occurred on stage 2 when the Toyota pairing were forced to change a wheel after hitting a compression while leading the rally.
Ogier and Landais were able to change the wheel in a little over a minute and only lost 1m32s on the stage following the stoppage.
However, it has been deemed that Ogier and co-driver Landais didn’t have their safety harnesses correctly fastened while the car was in motion following the wheel change. Landais’ HANS device was also in an incorrect position.
As result, a one minute penalty has been issued, demoting the eight-time world champion from fifth to seventh overall heading into Saturday.
The stewards' report read: “The driver of car No. 17 Mr. Sebastien Ogier explained that after changing a flat tyre on SS2, he had buckled his safety belts and had started to drive initially slowly until the safety belts were properly fastened.
“He had then asked confirmation from the co-driver Mr. Vincent Landais if he was ready and if they could start driving. The co-driver had confirmed this. He also explained that after they had started to drive faster the safety belts were fastened, but he admitted that he was trying to position the FHR device until the end of the stage.
“Mr. Sebastien Ogier stated that he was unaware that the co-driver had not positioned the FHR device nor that he had incorrectly fastened the safety belts, as the co-driver had confirmed earlier that he was ready to start. The co-driver apologised for this lapse."
Source: Autosport