Tag: Acropolis Rally

Neuville strengthens WRC title chances with Acropolis Rally victory

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville moved a step closer to claiming his first FIA World Rally Championship title after winning a grueling and twist-filled Acropolis Rally Greece. The Belgian (above) mastered the rough, rock-strewn, all-gravel stages around …

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville moved a step closer to claiming his first FIA World Rally Championship title after winning a grueling and twist-filled Acropolis Rally Greece.

The Belgian (above) mastered the rough, rock-strewn, all-gravel stages around Lamia to head up a Hyundai Motorsport 1-2-3 finish, ahead of i20 N Rally1 teammates Dani Sordo and Ott Tanak, with Neuville’s main title rival Sebastien Ogier suffering a dramatic roll on the rally-closing Wolf Power Stage while on course to finish second overall.

Ogier was able to push his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 back onto its wheels and finish the rally, the eight-time WRC champ crucially securing the 15 points scored on Saturday night, but he plummeted down the overall rally standings after dropping more than 20 minutes.

Frenchman Ogier had led early in the three-day rally, but slipped behind when his car was crippled by a turbocharger failure late on Friday’s opening leg. Tanak and Sordo also lost valuable time, both suffering tire damage on Saturday that dashed their own victory hopes and catapulted Neuville into the lead.

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier had charged back to second, but rolled on the closing stage to put a major dent in his WRC title hopes. McKlein/Motorsport Images

Even Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe weren’t totally immune to the rally’s brutality. A misfiring engine plagued their Hyundai on the opening morning, but the pair managed to regroup and adopted a sensible strategy, carefully balancing risk and reward to avoid further calamities on the treacherous road surfaces.

His Greek victory stretched Neuville’s lead in the WRC drivers’ standings to 34 points over Ogier, with Tanak two more points back in third. But with 90 points still available from the remaining three rounds, and Ogier switching from a part-time campaign to a full-on attack on a ninth title, it’s still far from over. In the WRC’s manufacturers’ championship, Hyundai extended its advantage over Toyota Gazoo Racing to 35 points.

“I didn’t have the information on Ogier’s crash at all, and when I saw the car I still wasn’t sure it was him,” said Neuville. “I understood from that point on that I just had to bring home the car and get through.

“Since yesterday morning we understood that we had to get through and to follow our objectives. I’m really proud of my team as well, and Martijn, too — we got the car to the end and that’s what matters.”

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville celebrates a near-flawless Acropolis Rally win – one that puts him a step closer to a first WRC title. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool 

With Ogier in trouble, Tanak collected 11 of a possible 12 points from Super Sunday. The 2019 WRC champ also claimed his 50th WRC podium.

Elfyn Evans’ title aspirations took a major hit when he rolled his Toyota late on Saturday, while M-Sport Ford duo Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster were also forced to rejoin under restart rules following their own incidents on Friday and Saturday resectively. For Fourmaux, there was small consolation in taking fastest time on the bonus points-paying Wolf Power Stage, but the Puma Rally1 driver’s chances of earning a top-three finish in the final WRC standings now seem remote. 

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Sami Pajari clinched the class victory in the closest way possible, the Finnish rising star relying on countback rules after completing the event level on time with Robert Virves.

Pajari, driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, appeared to have his third WRC2 win of the season in the bag as he headed into the closing Wolf Power Stage with a near 30-second advantage over Estonian Virves’ Skoda Fabia RS. But in true Acropolis Rally style, drama unfolded at the very last moment.

A deflating front-left tire three miles from the finish line left Pajari rapidly losing time. By the time he crossed the stage end, Virves had clawed back the gap, leaving both drivers deadlocked on total overall time.

As per the WRC regulations, the tiebreaker was determined by the fastest time on the rally’s opening stage — a decisive advantage for Pajari, who’d been 19.7s quicker on Friday morning’s 13.96-mile Ano Pavliani test.

“About five kilometers (three miles) from the finish, I realized we had a puncture, and I knew the best option was to keep going rather than stop to change it,” explained a shocked Pajari. “When we crossed the line, I looked around to see if anyone knew the result, but nobody seemed to know. It took a few minutes to find out that we had won, and it was a huge relief.”  

He now trails WRC2 championship leader Oliver Solberg, who skipped the Acropolis Rally as one of his seven points-counting events, by just three markers.

Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver Sami Pajari dead-heated with Robert Virves in WRC2, only taking the win on countback. McKlein/Motorsport Images

The WRC now heads across the Atlantic to South America for round 11 at Rally Chile, Sept. 26-29. The Concepcion-based event, which features breathtaking, all-gravel mountain stages, will be crucial to Ogier’s continuing chase of Neuville in the WRC’s overall title battle.

WRC Rally Acropolis Greece, final positions after Leg Three, SS15
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 3h38m04.2s
2 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m36.8s
3 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m57.3s
4 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2 winner) +7m01.1s
5 Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +7m01.1s
6 Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +7m31.9s
7 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +9m54.0s
8 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo der Ohannesian (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +11m27.9s
9 Josh McErlean/James Fulton (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +12m27.2s
10 Robert Dapra/Luca Guglielmetti (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +13m44.9s

WRC Drivers’ Championship after 10 of 13 rounds
1 Neuville 192 points 
2 Sebastien Ogier 158
3 Tanak 154
4 Elfyn Evans 140
5 Adrien Fourmaux 130

WRC Manufacturers’ Championship after 10 of 13 rounds
1 Hyundai Motorsport 445 points   
2 Toyota Gazoo Racing 410 
3 M-Sport Ford 226

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Neuville grabs Saturday Acropolis Rally lead, boosts WRC title hopes

Thierry Neuville’s FIA World Rally Championship title hopes were bolstered on Saturday as the Hyundai ace (above) emerged from the plot twists of another punishing day at Acropolis Rally Greece with a commanding overall lead. The Belgian, who …

Thierry Neuville’s FIA World Rally Championship title hopes were bolstered on Saturday as the Hyundai ace (above) emerged from the plot twists of another punishing day at Acropolis Rally Greece with a commanding overall lead.

The Belgian, who started the penultimate leg third, climbed to the top as his i20 N Rally1-driving factory teammates, Ott Tanak and Dani Sordo, suffered misfortunes in what has proven to be easily the season’s most brutal rally so far.

Tanak had led by 21.8s after Friday’s grueling opening leg, but Greece’s unforgiving, rock-strewn gravel stages took their toll early on Saturday. Forced to stop twice within six miles to change wheels, the Estonian’s challenge fell apart as he dropped four minutes and plummeted down the leaderboard to fourth.

Sordo, making his first top-level appearance since June’s Rally Italy Sardinia, briefly inherited the lead. But, like so many before him, the Spaniard was undone by the unforgiving road conditions. A collision with a rock caused a rear-tire blowout, which cost around 50s and negated his advantage in an instant.

But Neuville, whose Friday had been somewhat marred by a misfiring engine, managed to survive the rock-related carnage. Carefully pacing himself and conserving his Pirelli tires, he steered his Hyundai clear of any potential disasters to end the day with a lead of 53.7s over Sordo. 

Sebastien Ogier, Neuville’s closest championship challenger despite starting the 2024 season on a part-time schedule only, clung to third overall, the eight-time WRC champ ending Saturday 1m20.9s adrift of the lead in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier is holding on to third, but looks set to lose ground to Thierry Neuville in the WRC title battle.

With 18 points provisionally secured (they’ll be confirmed only if Neuville finishes Sunday’s closing leg), the rally leader and his co-driver, Martijn Wydaeghe, are on course to extend their WRC points lead, which stood at 27 points over Ogier at the start of the rally.

“There’s another day left, so at the moment there is no conclusion yet,” insisted Neuville, who’s finished WRC title runner-up five times, but is yet to make the final step. “We need to see where we end up tomorrow — that’s the only thing that counts.

“So far we’ve had a very good management of our rally and, despite some issues on Friday, nothing major happened. From the beginning, our approach was to be careful with the car when it was needed and we somehow got through. I tried to adapt my driving style a bit in the ruts and not put the car too sideways with the risk of hitting stones — that’s the only thing you can do.

“It’s a lottery out there and we don’t know what will happen. Tomorrow we have to see what the weather will be like and how hard we need to drive for the extra points. There are a lot of things we still have to manage.”

Sordo’s tire blowout obliterated the rear bodywork on his i20 N, and with no mid-day service, he and co-driver Candido Carrera were forced to patch up the car as best they could. The duo even resorted to wearing ski goggles to keep the dust out as they fought to retain second place.

Dani Sordo inspects the damage to his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. The Spaniard kept going and holds second overall at the overnight halt. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Ogier, who won three of the day’s six stages, could only reflect on what might have been. After leading early on Friday, his rally was derailed by a turbocharger failure that cost him more than two minutes. His Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans has fared far worse at this 10th round of the season; stricken by similar turbo issues on day one, the Welshman’s title hopes took a devastating blow when he rolled his car on Saturday’s penultimate stage and was forced to retire.

Tanak trailed Ogier by almost two minutes in fourth overall, while M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 youngster Gregoire Munster, who’d been hunting down a top-five spot in Friday’s opening leg, crashed out on Saturday’s third stage.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Finland’s Sami Pajari surged ahead of overnight leader Robert Virves, ending Saturday with a relatively comfortable 27.7s class lead.

Estonian Virves had held a slim 1.5s advantage entering the penultimate leg and, after 30 miles of competitive action in the morning loop, the gap had only increased to 3.9s.

However, it was Pajari’s commanding run through the day’s fourth stage, Aghii Theodori, that proved pivotal. On a softer road surface compared to the earlier stages, the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver outpaced Virves by 16.4s, propelling himself into the WRC2 lead.

A puncture on the repeat pass through Aghii Theodori further prevented any hopes of a comeback from Virves and, by the day’s close, the Skoda Fabia RS driver found himself trailing Pajari by what could prove an insurmountable margin.

Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver Sami Pajari pulled out the stops in Saturday afternoon’s opening stage to grab the WRC2 lead. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

A rough, tough Acropolis Rally Greece concludes on Sunday, when crews face three more special stages totaling 33.59 competitive miles. A rally-closing second run through the 11.36-mile Eleftherohori stage will be the bonus points-paying Wolf Power Stage.

WRC Rally Acropolis Greece, positions after Leg Two, SS12
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 3h01m05.3s
2 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +53.7s
3 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m20.9s
4 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3m19.2s
5 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2 leader) +5m06.1s
6 Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +5m33.8s
7 Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +6m00.3s
8 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +6m58.1s
9 Georg Linnamae/James Morgan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +8m33.9s
10 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo der Ohannesian (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +9m23.2s

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Tanak avoids Friday dramas to lead a rough, tough WRC Acropolis Rally

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak passed Sebastien Ogier’s ailing Toyota to lead Acropolis Rally Greece at the end of Friday’s opening leg, capping an incident-filled day that could significantly impact this year’s FIA World Rally Championship title race. …

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak passed Sebastien Ogier’s ailing Toyota to lead Acropolis Rally Greece at the end of Friday’s opening leg, capping an incident-filled day that could significantly impact this year’s FIA World Rally Championship title race.

Greece’s notoriously rugged gravel roads lived up to their punishing reputation, with four of the championship’s top five drivers encountering trouble and dropping significant time. But Tanak (above) guided his i20 N Rally1 through the chaos unscathed, the Estonian topping a commanding Hyundai 1-2-3 overnight.

Eight-time WRC champ Ogier, who started the rally second in championship points, held an 11.7s lead over Tanak when M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux retired from second overall due to a broken steering arm on the day’s fourth stage. But disaster struck Ogier late in the day when a turbocharger issue on his GR Yaris Rally1 cost the Frenchman, whose limited 2024 schedule has rapidly transformed into a full-on title attack, around two-and-a-half minutes and relegated him to fourth.

Ogier’s misfortune compounded a disastrous day for the Toyota Gazoo Racing factory squad. Teammate Elfyn Evans dropped nearly nine minutes earlier in the day with a similar turbo issue, while Takamoto Katsuta retired on the morning’s final stage with rear suspension damage after mishearing a pacenote from co-driver Aaron Johnston.

Sebastien Ogier’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 had been leading on the rough Greek stages, until a turbo issue dropped him down the order.

Explaining the situation, Toyota technical director Tom Fowler said: “It looks like Seb has lost the boost pressure from the turbocharger. We had Elfyn’s car this morning with the same symptoms.

“It’s a huge disappointment because, clearly, it’s another rally after Finland where we have really strong performance in the car. In Finland we didn’t capitalize on that, and it looks like here, again, we’re not going to capitalize on the potential performance that both the car and the drivers have.”

In contrast, Hyundai celebrated as Tanak led his i20 N Rally1-driving teammates Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville by 21.8 and 23.4s respectively at the overnight halt. As it stands, the Korean marque is poised to significantly extend its advantage in the WRC manufacturers’ championship.

“We’ve got to be thankful for a trouble-free day. It’s been tough with the heat and the rough conditions,” said Tanak, who currently sits third in the WRC drivers’ standings. “It’s been a great day for Hyundai, but we all know there’s more to come.”

Sordo, making his first appearance since Rally Italy Sardinia in June, faced challenges of his own, managing a faulty hybrid unit throughout much of the afternoon. Current WRC points leader Neuville also encountered issues, nursing an engine problem in the morning that left his car running on reduced power, but crucially headed title rival Ogier by 1m41.2s overnight.

Elsewhere among the headlining Rally 1 crews, M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster was forced to stop for a wheel change on the day’s sixth and final stage. He now sits seventh overall, but had impressed with his pace and consistency prior to the late mishap.

M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster held a solid top-five spot until picking up a puncture on the day’s final stage. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool 

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Estonia’s Robert Virves vaulted from fourth to first on the day’s final stage, snatching the lead after heartbreak struck Yohan Rossel.

Citroen C3 driver Rossel dominated the day’s early stages, posting fastest class times on the first five tests and building a commanding 46.5s lead over his closest WRC2 rival. However, his fortunes took a dramatic turn on the closing 14.52-mile Tarzan test when he was forced to stop seven miles in to change a wheel. He lost more than two minutes and tumbled to sixth in the standings.

“The only positive is we’ll have a better road position tomorrow,” said Rossel. “It’s tough because we gave everything, but it’s the same for some of the others, and there’s still a long way to go.”

Skoda Fabia RS driver Virves had been lying fourth before the final stage, but a sensational time – 11.1s faster than anyone else – propelled him into the overnight lead, just 1.5s ahead of Sami Pajari in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

Skoda Fabia RS driver Robert Virves climbed from fourth in WRC2 to leading the class after a scorching time on Friday’s final stage. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool 

Saturday’s second leg promises more challenges as the rough stuff continues. Six special stages add up to 72.22 competitive miles on the unforgiving roads south of Lamia.

WRC Rally Acropolis Greece, positions after Leg One, SS6
1 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 1h40m16.9s
2 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +21.8s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +45.2s
4 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m26.4s
5 Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +3m10.9s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +3m12.4s
7 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m08.4s
8 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +4m09.0s
9 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo der Ohannesian (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +4m19.7s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +4m22.5s

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Rovanpera wins Rally Acropolis to tighten grip on WRC title defense

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera (above) took his third victory of the season at Acropolis Rally Greece on Sunday to tighten his grip on this year’s FIA World Rally Championship. The 22-year-old reigning champ had looked set for only a third-place finish on …

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera (above) took his third victory of the season at Acropolis Rally Greece on Sunday to tighten his grip on this year’s FIA World Rally Championship.

The 22-year-old reigning champ had looked set for only a third-place finish on the 2023 WRC season’s 10th round, but found himself topping the leaderboard by more than two minutes after Saturday’s penultimate leg when former leaders Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier retired.

Both were sidelined by central Greece’s unforgiving rock-strewn mountain roads, with Neuville’s Hyundai i20 N Rally1 sustaining front suspension damage before Ogier hit a rock in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 in Saturday’s final stage. Despite his best efforts to make temporary repairs at the end of the stage, the Frenchman retired with rear suspension failure on the road section before the overnight halt. 

Rovanpera could afford to relax through Sunday’s three-stage final leg in his GR Yaris, but still sealed a near-perfect weekend with one final push that added the maximum five bonus points for winning the rally-closing Wolf Power Stage to the 25 he earned for the overall victory. He headed Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Elfyn Evans, his closest challenger in the championship standings, by 1m31.7s at the finish — the biggest winning margin in his 11 WRC rally wins — and extended his points over the Welshman to 33 with just three rounds remaining and a maximum 90 points available. 

“Of course, it’s a big relief,” said Rovanpera, whose victory also helped extend Toyota’s manufacturers’ championship lead to 91 points over Hyundai. “After a difficult rally in Finland, we needed to come back now. A strong performance, starting first car on the road and finishing first is quite nice. We had a clever drive and still a good push here at the end [in the Wolf Power Stage].”

Kalle Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen celebrate their third win of the 2023 WRC season.

Evans lost more than one minute on Saturday as a result of his Toyota overheating, but fought back to finish second overall after battling with Hyundai’s Dani Sordo until the very last stage.

Sordo had held the upper hand overnight, but a sluggish run through Sunday’s opening Tarzan stage cost him the position. The Spaniard, contesting his first event since Safari Rally Kenya in June, lost out by just 4.2s, but secured his second podium of the season. 

Ott Tanak incurred 3m40s in time penalties when a water pump failure meant he was late to leave Friday’s tire fitting zone and was playing catch up after that. But the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 driver enjoyed a relatively clean run from then on and climbed to an impressive fourth overall, albeit almost three minutes off the final podium spot.

Ott Tanak’s hopes of a win were dashed early, but the M-Sport Ford driver fought back to finish fourth overall. @World/Red Bull Content Pool

Esapekka Lappi was fifth after a glitch-filled event in his Hyundai, Takamoto Katsuta’s GR Yaris sixth, and a restarting Ogier, loaded up with two minutes of time penalties, 10th overall.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Andreas Mikkelsen overtook Gus Greensmith in Sunday’s penultimate stage to secure an important class victory.

Mikkelsen, who suffered tire damage on three separate occasions during Friday’s opening leg, delivered a no-holds-barred comeback drive on Saturday to climb from 12th to first in class in his Skoda Fabia RS. 

However, an updated notional time issued by the rally organizers on Sunday morning dropped the Norwegian back behind Greensmith by 12.0s with just three stages remaining. 

But drama would be just around the corner for Greensmith, with the British driver reporting a transmission issue on his similar Toksport-run Skoda. Although he was able to make it back to the final service, Mikkelsen had overtaken him in the penultimate stage and won the class by 10.3s, as well as finishing seventh overall.

“This is a special one,” said Mikkelsen after extending his WRC2 championship lead to 16 points over Yohan Rossel, who completed the podium 1m15.7s behind Greensmith in a Citroen C3. “After Friday, everything looked so dark and we decided we had nothing to lose. We drove the fastest we could on every corner the whole rally.”

Andreas Mikkelsen looked down and out after tire issues on the opening leg, but charged back for the WRC2 win. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

The championship heads to South America later this month for round 11. Rally Chile returns to the WRC calendar from Sept. 28-Oct. 1. Based out of the city of Concepcion, the gravel road event could be a last roll of the dice for Elfyn Evans in his chase of points leader Kalle Rovanpera.

WRC Acropolis Rally Greece, final positions after Day Three, SS15

1 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 3h00m16.7s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m31.7s
3 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m35.9s
4 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m28.4s
5 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +6m22.3s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +7m20.9s
7 Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 winner) +9m41.0s
8 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +9m51.3s
9 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +11m07.0s
10 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +11m43.4s

WRC Drivers’ Championship after 10 rounds
1 Rovanpera 200 points
2 Evans 167
3 Neuville 134
4 Tanak 119
5 Ogier 99

WRC Manufacturers’ Championship after 10 rounds
1 Toyota Gazoo Racing 430 points
2 Hyundai Motorsport 339
3 M-Sport Ford 220  

Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.

Rovanpera grabs WRC Rally Acropolis lead after brutal Saturday

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera (above) is on course for a remarkable victory at WRC Acropolis Rally Greece after Saturday’s brutal penultimate leg forced leaders Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier into retirement. A furious fight in the morning became a …

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera (above) is on course for a remarkable victory at WRC Acropolis Rally Greece after Saturday’s brutal penultimate leg forced leaders Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier into retirement.

A furious fight in the morning became a matter of survival on the afternoon’s loop of stages as heat and punishing rock-strewn roads took a heavy toll in the 10th round of the 2023 FIA World Rally Championship.

Overnight leader Neuville was a relatively comfortable 10.9s clear when he thumped a deep pothole and shattered his Hyundai i20 N Rally1’s right-front suspension on the first stage of the afternoon. The Belgian had trailed reigning WRC champ and 2023 championship leader Rovanpera by 36 points coming into the event, but with only three more rounds after Greece, his slim title hopes appear to be shattered. 

Neuville’s demise left eight-time WRC champ Ogier, who’s running only a part-time WRC program in 2023, seemingly in control in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. But the Frenchman, who entered Saturday’s leg-closing Eleftherohori 2 stage 12.4s ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Rovanpera, swiped a rock which destroyed his left-rear suspension. He crabbed out of the stage, but retired on the final road section, while Rovanpera moved into a familiar spot at the top of the leaderboard.

Sebastien Ogier’s attempts at repairs after hitting a final-stage rock would prove in vain. WRC photo

Rovanpera will start the final leg with a lead of more than two minutes over Hyundai Motorsport Dani’s Sordo, and completing the victory on Sunday would move the 22-year-old Finn another step closer to clinching back-to-back WRC titles. 

“There was a lot happening at the front today,” said Rovanpera as news of Ogier’s issue reached him. “It was a nice battle of course, but not the easiest to push with Seb because we had the championship to think about. I think we had a good day; we were fast, but we also kept the car in one piece.” 

There was drama throughout the field as Rovanpera’s closest championship challenger, Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans, limped to the finish of the morning’s final stage, Eleftherohori 1, in EV mode when his hybrid GR Yaris began overheating. Having plummeted to fifth overall, the Welshman hauled himself back up the order, only to be demoted to third by Sordo’s Hyundai in the final stage.

Sordo had ended Friday’s opening leg down in seventh overall, but crept up the order as those around him struck trouble. Cautious rather than spectacular, the Spaniard headed to the overnight halt with a 5.0s lead over Evans.

Dani Sordo kept his head as others encountered dramas and now holds second for Hyundai. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Despite having 3m40s in time penalties for being late out of Friday’s tire fitting zone after a water pump issue, M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 driver Ott Tanak enjoyed a clean day in comparison to his rivals and climbed from ninth to fourth overall, passing fifth- and sixth-placed Esapekka Lappi and Takamoto Katsuta in the process. 

A transmission failure left Lappi’s Hyundai with only rear-wheel drive, while a fraught run through Karoutes 2 saw Katsuta stop twice to perform wheel changes on his GR Yaris.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Andreas Mikkelsen produced one of the strongest drives of his WRC career to climb from 12th to first in class.

After suffering three punctures on Friday, nobody could have blamed Mikkelsen for writing off his chances of claiming victory. But the Norwegian was far from down and out, and proceeded to gun his Skoda Fabia RS to fastest WRC2 times on all of Saturday’s stages — leapfrogging Gus Greensmith’s similar car in the day’s final stage to carry a miniscule 0.4s advantage into Sunday’s final leg. 

Andreas Mikkelsen fought back from his Friday punctures to take the WRC2 lead. Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Overnight WRC2 leader Yohan Rossel had topped the standings throughout the morning, but fell to third when his Citroen C3 sustained tire damage on the day’s penultimate stage. The Frenchman, who trails Mikkelsen by five points in the WRC2 title race, was more than one minute behind the leaders at close of play.

Sunday’s three-stage final leg totals a short, sharp, but potentially decisive 26.33 competitive miles north-west of the Lamia rally HQ and begins with the classic Tarzan test. Double runs of Grammeni round out the event, the second of which forms the Wolf Power Stage where bonus points are available.

WRC Acropolis Rally Greece, leading positions after Day Two, SS12

1 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 2h29m40.5s
2 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m04.4s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m09.4s
4 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m49.7s
5 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +6m16.2s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +7m02.2s
7 Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +8m51.1s
8 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +8m51.5s
9 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +9m47.6s
10 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +9m56.3s

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Neuville holds off Ogier for slender WRC Acropolis Rally lead

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville (above) kept a charging Sebastien Ogier at bay to lead WRC Acropolis Rally Greece after Friday’s opening leg, the Belgian overcoming a late technical drama in the process. Just 2.8s separated Neuville from Toyota Gazoo …

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville (above) kept a charging Sebastien Ogier at bay to lead WRC Acropolis Rally Greece after Friday’s opening leg, the Belgian overcoming a late technical drama in the process.

Just 2.8s separated Neuville from Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Ogier after the first full day of competition at the legendary Acropolis’s 70th edition. And despite winning just one of the five grueling gravel road tests that made up Friday’s 63.37 competitive miles, he led the day from start to finish. 

The Hyundai i20 N Rally1 driver passed overnight leader Kalle Rovanpera, who’d set the pace on Thursday evening’s rally-opening, 0.92-mile super special stage in Athens, by going fastest through Friday morning’s Loutraki opener. Pushing on, Neuville had pulled out a 7.4s buffer over Ogier’s GR Yaris Rally1 going into the day’s final stage in Elatia, but his hard work was very nearly in vain as a mechanical problem, suspected to be transmission related, hampered him throughout the 17.6-mile blast.

“The rear diff was slipping all the time and I couldn’t go on full-throttle for first, second and third gear,” Neuville explained. “I was constantly losing time and I couldn’t rotate the car on throttle, so I was struggling a lot. 

“It was stressful, also because it was a challenging stage. From the first kilometer I could hear the noise from the rear diff and I was worried that I couldn’t go to the end, but we managed.”

Ogier, who’s running a limited schedule in 2023 and is back in action for the first time since June, was poised to steal the lead late, but could only claw back 5.0s after low-hanging tree branches removed his Yaris’s rear wing. The eight-time WRC champ believes tire strategy will be key in Saturday’s punishing leg, which boasts almost 90 miles of competition. 

“I felt that my rear wing was missing, but I had no idea why,” he recalled. “It’s going to be a bit like this all weekend — what the tire differences are between us — but it’s a big day tomorrow.”

Sebastien Ogier (above, rear wing still intact…) closed to within 2.8s of rally leader Thierry Neuville. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

GR Yaris Rally 1 driver Rovanpera earned one stage win as the rally threaded up the country following Thursday’s spectacular start in Greece’s capital city. Opening the road, the reigning WRC champ and 2023 points leader was hindered by loose stones as the surface dried after torrential rains in the days leading up to the event and trailed teammate Ogier by 25.5s at the end of Friday. 

Just 5.5s behind was Elfyn Evans, who struggled to make an impact despite this rally being crucial in his bid to hunt down teammate Rovanpera in the championship points battle. A slow puncture in the morning’s first stage caused the Welshman minor time loss and he, like teammate Ogier, also lost his Yaris’s rear wing in the final stage.

Evans leapfrogged Esapekka Lappi in the Elatia closer to hold fourth overall by just 1.1s after the Hyundai driver was forced to err on the side of caution after nursing a water leak for much of the afternoon. 

A stall in the final stage saw Hyundai’s other entry, Dani Sordo, slip from fifth to seventh on the leaderbaord, but the Spaniard’s frustrations were nothing compared with those of Ott Tanak, who sat ninth overall in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1. 

Tanak checked out of the mid-leg tire fitting zone 22 minutes late after repairing a technical fault and incurred a 3m40s time penalty as a result. Although coy on the details, he believed the issue was similar to the one which ruled out his M-Sport Ford teammate, Pierre-Louis Loubet, who retired before the day’s first stage citing “temperature issues.” But there were at least some positives the Estonian could take from the day, as he won two special stages in his Puma. 

 

M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak has the speed, but a tech issue has put him out of contention.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Yohan Rossel stormed to the front of the class field after rival Adrien Fourmaux suffered heartbreak late in the leg.

Fourmaux, who drives a Ford Fiesta Mk2 for M-Sport Ford, was undoubtedly the star performer on what proved to be a testing day for several of the WRC2 category’s regular front-runners. 

His consistency appeared to be paying off as he carried an eight-second lead into the penultimate stage, but a pesky rock on the start line dealt the Frenchman front-left tire damage and his advantage was sliced to just 0.9s. 

Worse was to come on the Elatia finale, however, in the form of another puncture. Fourmaux and Alex Coria opted to perform a mid-stage wheel change, dropping almost two minutes and handing the class lead to compatriot Yohan Rossel. 

Rossel didn’t win any stages aboard his Citroen C3 Rally2, but headed Skoda Fabia RS driver Gus Greensmith by 6.8s at the overnight halt.

Adrien Fourmaux was WRC2’s star of the day until a pair of late punctures.

WRC Acropolis Rally Greece, leading positions after Day One, SS6
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 55m10.4s
2 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2.8s
3 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +25.5s
4 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +31.0s
5 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +32.1s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +41.7s
7 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +48.6s
8 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2, non-points) +3m16.7s
9 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Puma Rally1) +3m34.5s
10 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroen C3 – WRC2 leader) +3m46.3s

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