Takamoto Katsuta and Esapekka Lappi both hit trouble on Saturday’s penultimate Acropolis Rally Greece stage, as Elfyn Evans also punctured.
First to find trouble was Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, who cut a corner early on too much and got a puncture on one side of his car, then shortly after got a puncture on the other side too.
That meant he had to stop twice, and lost over four minutes in total.
Hyundai’s Lappi was next onto the stage and next into trouble, as his alternator and transmission broke. He lost close to half a minute, and not long after he reached the stage-end Elfyn Evans did the same.
Evans had picked up a puncture on his Toyota Yaris Rally1 towards the end of the stage and had actually gone fastest despite it, at least until his victory-fighting team-mates came through.
Kalle Rovanperä beat Sébastien Ogier to the stage win by 0.2 seconds, with Evans a further 6.3s slower, and Ogier now has a 12.4s lead going into the day’s final stage.
Remarkably Evans is now on the podium, having moved ahead of Hyundai’s Dani Sordo by 4.1s, while Katsuta’s punctures have dropped him to seventh behind Lappi and M-Sport’s Ott Tänak. However DirtFish understands that Lappi could retire from the day’s action if he can get out of regroup.
Extending his WRC2 lead in eighth overall was Gus Greensmith, who beat main rival Yohan Rossel by 5.7s despite his tires being “dead at the end”.
