Ott Tänak has taken the lead of Acropolis Rally Greece away from Sébastien Ogier after stage two, while Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans continue to struggle with technical troubles.
Neuville had reported his engine acting as if it were down to three cylinders on the opener and had lost 10 seconds – he then shipped another 14.6s to team-mate Tänak on Dafni but remains in sixth place.
There was further misery for Elfyn Evans too. He’d already lost two minutes with a puncture but a technical problem that emerged on the same stage remained, as he limped to the finish three minutes off the pace.
Evans is known as one of the World Rally Championship’s most knowledgeable drivers when it comes to fixing broken cars – but even after calling his engineer on the road section between stages one and two, he couldn’t figure out what was amiss.
“We have no power. We’re not sure what it is,” he said. When put to him it seemed like his issues were related to a broken turbo, Evans replied: “Something that way but we don’t know what the cause is.”
In better news for Toyota, Takamoto Katsuta went fastest on Dafni by 1.9s to leap up the leaderboard to second place, 0.2s from the top spot held by Tänak. He’d taken a more aggressive tire strategy than his rivals, carrying only one spare compared to two for the rest of the field.
Ogier has now fallen to third and still has compatriot Adrien Fourmaux directly behind in the lead M-Sport car, the pair only one second apart.
Dani Sordo is 9.3s adrift of Fourmaux in fifth place and was surprised not to be faster: “I honestly have a good feeling,” he said. “I was thinking I was driving well, doing a good stage but apparently not.”
Greece is currently Sordo's last scheduled outing of 2024 for Hyundai
It’s been three months since Sordo last drove an i20 N Rally1 in competition but the three-time WRC event winner didn’t want to use lack of mileage as an excuse: “I don’t want to think these kinds of things,” he added. “I need to do my best. Of course I need a little bit more kilometres but this I can manage.”
Grégoire Munster is eighth, 3.3s behind WRC2 leader Yohan Rossel, as he struggled with issues aboard his Ford Puma. At the end of stage one he couldn’t select neutral in his gearbox; on stage two he’d lost the handbrake.
“Worst stage not to have it,” Munster lamented, after finishing 26.5s off Katsuta’s pace on Dafni.
