A puncture for the second stage in succession has severely dented Thierry Neuville’s victory hopes at Acropolis Rally Greece.
The reigning world champion has won this rally twice in the past, and really needed a strong result this week to light up his title defense. He currently trails points leader Elfyn Evans by 50 points.
The Hyundai driver led the rally after three stages but a puncture on SS4 cost him close to 40s, and dropped him to sixth.
He felt vindicated by that time loss, proving he was right to not stop and change, but on the very next stage (the other side of remote service) the Belgian again picked up a flat, and this time he had no choice but to stop – losing two minutes.
Crossing the flying finish of the Thiva test, he was animated in his frustration and clearly unimpressed when he spoke to the stage-end reporter.
“It’s a disaster,” Neuville said. “Nothing happened – puncture. Just a puncture. I’m going to drive until the end and I’m going to see.”
In the battle out front, Ott Tänak has closed to 2.9s adrift of Sébastien Ogier, with stage winner Adrien Fourmaux 11s off the lead.
