What a farce!
First this:
The Rebellion car, driven by Nelson Piquet Jr, David Heinemeier Hansson, and Mathias Beche, was found to be guilty of "modifying a homologated part and using it partly during the race," according to Autosport's report of the race official's statement.
The modification, which officials said was a "hole that [had] been fashioned by the competitor in the right-hand side of the engine cover," gave access to the car's starter motor without having to remove the entire rear bodywork.
The car, which Autosport reports as having starter motor issues early in the race, ran a portion of the 24 hours with this modified bodywork, which is strictly against the rules. And then there's an even more damning issue: the team tried to cover the hole after the race.
Racer reports that the tech inspectors saw the Valliante Rebellion team "attempt to cover the hole in Parc Ferme." Think of Parc Ferme as a hermetically sealed chamber, once cars enter it after a race, they aren't to be touched by members of the team until tech inspection is complete.
Rebellion's loss of position means the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car driven by Tristan Gomendy, David Cheng, and Alex Brundle move up onto the podium, and take a second place finish in LMP2.
Closely followed by this:
The #68 Ford GT, which finished fourth in the GTE-Pro class at the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as the #85 Ford GT, the GTE-Am class winner, have disqualified by the FIA for a breach of fuel class regulations.
According to the FIA and ACO, the two sanctioning bodies for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the total fuel volume for the #68 car was "found to be in excess of the permitted limit." The maximum allowed volume for fuel tanks is 97 liters. Post-race scrutineering revealed the car to have had a maximum capacity of 97.83 liters.
WEC officials have ordered the #68 team, which consisted of drivers Dirk Müller, Joey Hand, and Sébastien Bourdais, to forfeit any trophies or other prizes. The standings have been adjusted as necessary. The other three Ford GTs, which finished fifth, sixth, and seventh, will now move up to fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively. The team does have the option to appeal the decision. The 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans was the last for the factory Ford GT program.
The first privately run GT, the #85 car fielded by Keating Motorsports, finished first in the GTE-Am class, but was handed a 55.2-second time penalty on Monday, demoting it to second place. According to a report from Sportscar365, the car didn't meet the minimum refueling time of 45 seconds. The #56 Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR of Joerg Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey and Egidio Perfetti inherent the win, as well as the WEC GTE-Am driver's title for the season. Shortly after, the team was disqualified from the results out-right thanks to a similar issue to the #68 car, with the fuel tank being 0.1 liters over maximum capacity, per Dailysportscar.com. Second place now goes to the #62 Ferrari 488 of Weathertech Racing.