Thierry Neuville leads Sébastien Ogier by 9.7 seconds after a punishing opening day of Acropolis Rally Greece, where Oliver Solberg crashed on the final test.
Erstwhile leader Adrien Fourmaux ended the leg third, 42.4s off the lead with Josh McErlean and Mãrtiņš Sesks completing the top five for M-Sport.
Solberg’s Friday got off to the worst possible start as the Swede picked up a puncture on the day’s opening stage and lost 1m28.9s.
Determined to avoid drama, Solberg then checked his pace for the remaining stages, not seeing any benefit in pushing hard as that would increase the chances of more trouble befalling him.
However his GR Yaris Rally1 ended the day at the side of the road after Solberg lost the rear on appraoch to a left hander and got stuck on the edge of the road. It was Solberg’s fourth day-ending mistake from the last five rallies.
Toyotea team-mate Ogier meanwhile carried the lead into Friday’s six-stage leg following Thursday’s superspecial stage, but utilizing their sixth and seventh place road positions, Fourmaux and Neuville hit the front for Hyundai.
Friday was another day to forget for Oliver Solberg
Neuville led after SS2 but it was Fourmaux who was quickest, and the Frenchman then took the lead after SS3 before a puncture cost him half a minute on SS4.
That released Neuville into an 11s lead over Ogier, with the two most recent world champions trading times throughout the afternoon.
Ogier stole 1.7s from Neuville on SS5 but Neuville took 0.8s back with a stage win on SS6. However the Belgian was forced to use a soft compound Hankook throughout the afternoon loop – a mistake similar to the one Hyundai made with Dani Sordo in Portugal – which potentially contributed to him losing 0.4s to Ogier on SS7.
“We had the same rhythm all afternoon and we can be pleased with our run,” Neuville said. “I was on the limit with what I had on the car with the tires – they were very worn already before the start so I was a bit worried, but we are here and no risks were taken.
“It’s always nice to lead, but it doesn’t mean anything to us at the moment,” he continued. “The rally is still very long and tomorrow will be very tough for tires again and for the car. Let’s see what the day brings.”
Ogier added: “It’s been a good day for us, I think we can be happy with that. We’ve managed to stay more or less out of trouble. At the moment I just focus on myself, stay out of trouble and we’ll see where we battle.”
Fourmaux had initially dropped to fourth after his puncture in the morning, but was elevated back into the top three at the expense of Jon Armstrong – rounding out his day with a stage win.
Armstrong won his first ever WRC stage on SS5 immediately after remote service, but his joy was shortlived as a puncture and turbo problem cost him four minutes, and third place, on SS6.
He then retired on the road section with the problem unable to be fixed.
That promoted his two team-mates up one place too, with McErlean holding Sesks to a narrow 6.8s deficit overnight. Fourth is the highest overnight position McErlean has ever held in the WRC.
“It’s quite a nice position to be in,” McErlean admitted. “We tried to get some sort of road position for tomorrow so I think that’s achieved.”
Takamoto Katsuta is sixth overnight, one spot ahead of Elfyn Evans who was the only car ahead him in the running order. They both trail leader Neuville by 1m33.2s and 2m08.4s.
Those behind all suffered problems; Dani Sordo stopping to change a puncture in the morning and Sami Pajari the same in the afternoon.
Sordo, however, had deeper issues: “I live frustrated now, it’s my new mood,” he said. “It’s difficult – everything, I forgot how to make the pacenotes. I enjoy, I was thinking it was better, but not in the pace.”
Andreas Mikkelsen leads WRC2 ahead of Toksport Škoda team-mate Robert Virves, with Toyota pilot Alejandro Cachón moving into third after Yohan Rossel stopped to change a tire on the final stage.
