The Acropolis is one of the World Rally Championship’s classics, and this year’s edition lived up to its reputation.
A grueling rally ended with Hyundai celebrating a 1-2-3 result and left the Toyota squad licking its wounds. Here’s how Colin Clark rated the drivers.
Hyundai
Thierry Neuville – 9/10
Winning any gravel rally from first on the road is always going to be an achievement. But winning the Acropolis, one of the roughest, toughest challenges out there, from first on the road is something very special indeed – particularly by a driver who we are told only cries when he’s first on the road.
I think maybe that was the most impressive part of Neuville’s weekend; the way he dealt with the
gamesmanship by Sébastien Ogier was quite exemplary. He refused to be drawn in, refused to comment on it. He answered Ogier’s barbed comments in the best possible way, by taking a convincing victory.
His championship position is now as strong as he could have possibly hoped and, barring any unforeseen disasters in the next three rounds, he should claim the title that has eluded him for the past 10 seasons. And he will deserve it, based on some really tenacious performances this year.
This was one of the most tenacious, fantastic performances from Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, showing class and quality that typifies a champion.
Dani Sordo – 8/10
Sordo did what he always does – delivered a sound and reliable performance out on the stages despite not having competitively sat in the car for many months.
It’s difficult to comprehend that this may well be Sordo’s last outing in a Rally1 car. A driver who you’d imagine would be top of the list of any team in terms of a third driver, perhaps might have nowhere to go next season.
To be honest, Sordo has done the best part of 20 seasons at the very top level and has performed to the highest standards over those 20 years, taking wins and many, many podiums. This one will be particularly satisfying. He used his head, he used his experience, he played the team game on the Sunday, didn’t take any risks at all.
And the dominant position that Hyundai finds itself in, in the manufacturers’ championship, is in no small part due to the efforts and the contribution that Dani Sordo has made this year.
Ott Tänak – 8/10
Tänak’s pace on Friday was impressive, his performance was impressive, his demeanor was impressive, and he rightly led the event going into Saturday. Those two punctures in the opening stage on Saturday morning without any question knocked the wind out of his sails but he knew he had a job to do.
Yes, his hopes of the drivers’ title more or less disappeared with those punctures but his focus, I’m pretty certain, then switched to the manufacturers’ and he did, again, a remarkable job to secure Hyundai’s second 1-2-3 in Greece and the 50th podium of his long and illustrious career.
Will he go away from Greece with a degree of disappointment? I suspect he will. But he knows, as well as anyone, that it’s not over till it’s over.
Toyota
Sébastien Ogier – 7/10
If Thierry Neuville’s pace and performance from first on the road was impressive, Ogier’s pace and performance from second on the road, particularly on Friday, was equally if not more impressive.
The team let him down with the turbo issues on Friday evening and that made his job extremely difficult in terms of winning the rally and, more pertinently, perhaps challenging for the drivers’ title this year.
There is no question Ogier used every ounce of his experience, his knowledge, his ability – and the psychological games that he played with Thierry Neuville were all part and parcel of that. To win, you use everything available to you; you use everything that’s in your armory to win on the stages and perhaps to unsettle your opponents off the stages. That has always been the way, not just in rallying, but in any top-level elite sport, and I don’t blame Ogier one bit for trying everything he could to get the best possible result here in Greece.
And maybe it’s actually a compliment in some ways to Thierry Neuville that Ogier felt that he had to indulge in psychological warfare as a last resort to try and beat Neuville. For me, that shows just how good Neuville is.
When we talk about the drivers’ title, yes, he’ll know his chances are all but gone. But like Ott Tänak, he will also know that rallying is rallying and anything can happen. So I fully expect to see Ogier still in Chile and I fully expect him to go for the win in Chile. Because that really is all that both Ogier and Tänak can do now – they can win in Chile and see what happens to Thierry Neuville.
Elfyn Evans – 3/10
OK, Elfyn was seriously hampered by mechanical issues on Friday so we weren’t able to see what he was capable of doing from his position on the road. But his job was very clear on Saturday and that was to get through the stages and to bring his car back home in one piece with some decent tires left, to give himself a chance at pushing for maximum points on Super Sunday.
And this is what worries me. The accident on Sunday in Finland, you could almost understand. He was going for it. He was pushing. He had to score points. But this was a very different accident, an accident where there was no pressure on him – absolutely no pressure whatsoever – and he rolled it. Now, at the end of the day, it probably didn’t cost him much, but it could have been catastrophic. If he’d rolled that, damaged the rollcage, and he’d missed out on the Sunday, that was absolutely the end of his title chances.
I think they’ve gone anyway. But for me, it’s a worrying trend that Elfyn struggles to pick up his pace when he needs to and he’s struggling for any consistency at all just now. Consistency in terms of pace and consistency in terms of the quality of his driving. You can drive well and not show pace, but to not show pace, to not drive well, to make mistakes, that’s very, very worrying indeed for me.
Evans has got a fair amount to think about as we head towards Chile. He needs now to finish the season well, to finish the season strongly for two reasons: because Toyota still has a chance of winning the manufacturers’ title and because if he’s hoping to mount a challenge for the title next year, he needs to be a lot more confident of where he’s at than he is right now.
Sadly, Elfyn’s performance here probably wasn’t good enough for Toyota. In fact, it certainly wasn’t good enough for Toyota. He should have been better. Toyota maybe deserve better.
Takamoto Katsuta – 2/10
Once again, Taka-san failed to do what the team asked him to do. His job was very, very clear before this event and that was to provide the backup with that third point-scoring car to Evans and Ogier.
He showed great pace on stage one, his splits on stage two looked good, and then he ripped a wheel off. Just not good enough. And the worrying thing is that it was signposted by team boss Jari-Matti Latvala, who said that Taka does listen, but when he finds himself in a strong position close to the front, he does his own thing. Well, once again, his own thing just wasn’t good enough.
Taka-san is another driver who will need a strong finish to the season to rebuild his shattered confidence. There’ll be a lot of questions being asked about a lot of the decisions made by Toyota this year and Taka-san will be fully aware of that. He has to do more to justify his full-time seat as a manufacturers’ points-scoring driver with Toyota.
M-Sport
Adrien Fourmaux – 6/10
This was probably Fourmaux’s best opportunity this year to take a maiden victory in the World Rally Championship and on Friday, certainly for the opening stage or so, he looked to have the pace to challenge at the very front.
The slightest mistake on Friday afternoon cost him that opportunity to push for the win. But Fourmaux is an intelligent driver. He knew what he had to do on Saturday. He got through the stages and he put in quite some performance on Sunday to claim 11 out of the 12 points available.
That is the kind of performance that I’m pretty certain that Latvala was looking for from Elfyn Evans on Sunday. Evans wasn’t able to deliver. Fourmaux delivered big time. And he reaffirmed a lot of people’s belief in the fact that this kid is a youngster capable of not just pushing for rally wins, but potentially within a year or two of pushing for championship wins.
Whether or not he can do that, I believe, depends on the decision he makes about where he goes next year. But again, his pace, his performance, his intelligence was on display in Greece and that will not have done his future prospects any harm whatsoever.
Grégoire Munster – 2/10
Just not good enough. What more can I say? He’s had a wonderful opportunity this year to show what he’s capable of, to show potential. You can forgive mistakes if you see potential in terms of performance and pace. But we’re not seeing enough of Grégoire on the stages to judge whether that potential is there.
For me, it’s worrying. He had a well-defined plan for the year. First two thirds of the season, seat-time, confidence, knowing the car, getting to know some rallies that he wasn’t so familiar with. The final third of the season was where we were going to see some pace.
Now, yeah, you might argue he showed a touch more pace, I think, in a stage or two here. But he put the car off the road and then retired from the rally halfway through Saturday. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you learn nothing sitting in a ditch at the side of the road, watching your opponents drive by.
Grégoire is one of the nicest guys in the service park; there is no question about that. But has he done enough this season so far for us to believe there’s potential there for a prolonged career at the very top level? Not yet. He’s got three more rounds to prove us all wrong.
Jourdan Serderidis – 7/10
I’m going to upset a lot of people with this score. I judge my driver ratings not just on where a driver finishes, but on the context around their performance.
The lifeblood of the WRC has been, since its instigation, gentlemen drivers and privateers. And we’ve found ourselves in a situation where for the past two and a half, three seasons, the only privateer/gentleman driver in the championship has been Jourdan Serderidis. And I’ll tell you, I saw him on the road sections, I saw the reception he got from the Greek fans, and it is what makes rallying. It matters not a jot where he finished overall.
Serderidis got through every single stage in a Rally1 car, and he added to the spectacle of the event: a home driver driving a top-line rally car and getting to the end. Jourdan Serderidis should be encouraged, applauded, and fingers crossed we will see him again.
Fingers crossed we will see many more like Jourdan Serderidis in the future, and I don’t care where they finish. If they turn up, and they’re local drivers, and they can put on a show in a Rally1 car, then for me that has to be applauded, congratulated, and very much encouraged.
