Takamoto Katsuta has retired out of the battle for the lead of Acropolis Rally Greece with a broken wheel, with Toyota team-mate Sébastien Ogier retaking first place.
A stage win on Dafni had propelled Katsuta to only 0.2s behind erstwhile rally leader Ott Tänak – but a broken wheel early on the Tarzan test forced him to stop approximately four miles into the third stage of the rally.
Ogier was the main beneficiary, leaping from third to first as he won the Tarzan test comfortably to build a 5.9s lead over M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux.
Tänak fell back to third after ending Tarzan 11.2s off the pace: “For some reason it was a big struggle with the balance on this one,” he said afterwards. “It was more rocky and difficult to make it work.”
Fourmaux is 4.9s behind Ogier on the leaderboard for now but that gap may become smaller through a stewards decision. He’d been stuck in the dust of Elfyn Evans, who had been limping to the end of stages two and three with technical problems, and expects to gain time back through stage time adjustments.
Fourmaux remained in the lead battle despite having no hybrid power on Friday morning
“I’ve done all I was capable to do this morning,” said Fourmaux. “We lost the hybrid this morning so we did all the loop without it. I just saw the organizer will do something for our time on the last two stages where we lost a lot of time near the end with the dust coming from Elfyn, as we were catching him.”
Katsuta’s demise promotes Dani Sordo to fourth place, 9.6s adrift of his Hyundai teammate Tänak. Sordo was at a loss to understand why he was unable to match the pace of the leaders.
“I don’t understand why I am slower than the others,” said Sordo after arriving at the finish of Tarzan 9.1s off Ogier’s pace. “For me the feeling was like I could push a little bit more.”
Thierry Neuville is fifth, 35.7s behind title rival Ogier. An engine issue that was causing misfires during Friday morning cleared up somewhat on Tarzan – but the drawbacks of being first on the road remained.
“We got hit by some technical issues which didn’t help,” said Neuville. “In those cleaning conditions it has been horrible. The last one [Dafni] was a disaster. However I tried to push a bit more and tired to get through.”
Evans hit a rock that caused a puncture on rally’s opening stage – but he suspects may also have contributed to a technical problem that left him limping through stages two and three, dropping almost nine minutes.
“We need to find out what the cause is first before we judge whether it’s bad luck or not,” he said after Tarzan.
WRC2 class leader Yohan Rossel is also sixth overall, running ahead of Grégoire Munster’s Ford Puma Rally1 by 3.4s.
Rossel is one of the main contenders for the WRC2 title against the absent Oliver Solberg, who is skipping this round
“Incredible feeling in the car,” said Rossel. “I drive like I’m in my home.”
There was less to feel fuzzy about in the cockpit of Munster’s Puma: “We don’t have a handbrake for two stages,” he said. “It’s really technical and difficult to make the car turn. You have to try and provoke it, get it in the loose to make it turn. But if you force it you might roll. The handbrake would be a safer option.”
Rossel has 24.3s in hand over nearest WRC2 rival Sami Pajari, who had no answer for Rossel’s searing pace.
“I felt like I had a really good section on this stage here,” said Pajari after SS3. “But maybe closer to the end I ran out of the tires. It’s not bad but still I feel like I’m missing something.”
