Hyundai now holds a 1-2-3 on Acropolis Rally Greece as Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi ran into technical trouble on the penultimate stage of Saturday.
Lappi was under pressure from 2019 world champion Ott Tänak, holding second place by just 1.2 seconds prior to SS12.
But any hopes Lappi had of defending position evaporated on the second pass of Perivoli when, after pulling to change gear, his GR Yaris Rally1 suddenly slowed.
Lappi was seen fiddling with something to the left of his seat, before pulling over to have a deeper look. While the precise nature of the issue is yet to be confirmed by Toyota, the net result is obvious as Lappi slid not just off the podium but outside the top 10 too.
Thierry Neuville leads the rally by 34.2s over Tänak, losing 4.4s to his team-mate on the stage, but it was the other i20 N Rally1 of Dani Sordo that took the fastest stage time – quicker than Tänak by 1.7s.
Elfyn Evans is 15.3s down on Sordo who now rounds out the provisional podium. Pierre-Louis Loubet is now up into the top five as a result of the drama ahead, albeit 1m18.5s behind Evans.
Hybrid issues have affected both Tänak and Jourdan Serderidis throughout the Acropolis weekend, subsequently ruling Serderidis out of the entire rally after midday service.
It had been a massive bugbear for Katsuta during Ypres Rally Belgium, and his patience was tested as a result.
He’s up to seventh overall following team-mate Lappi’s problems but it’s a rather distant eighth after struggling for confidence throughout the entire rally, but at least his hybrid unit has been working.
That was until SS12.
“I have no hybrid,” Katsuta said, “again.”
It cost him very little though given the 36s deficit to Craig Breen.
Kalle Rovanperä is the only running Rally1 car outside the points positions and stuck to his mantra of “coming through slowly”.
The championship leader lost another 29.2s relative to stage winner Sordo.
