Sébastien Ogier clinched his first Acropolis Rally Greece victory since 2011 after a rally-long battle with Hyundai rival Thierry Neuville, a fight ultimately decided by a penultimate-stage double-puncture for Neuville.
Neuville had been the early pacesetter but over Saturday’s stages Ogier began chipping away at the 2024 world champion’s advantage, eventually taking the lead on Sunday’s first stage.
Two rear punctures on the second pass of Aghii Theodori cost Neuville a minute and, ultimately, the chance to battle Ogier for the win to the very end.
“We said it before, it’s part of the lottery in some of the sections,” Neuville told DirtFish. “I was trying to do what I could, we drove over a couple of stones but obviously these very little ones, you can’t do much.”
Two rear punctures for Neuville undid his victory bid
Ogier’s final-day performance was superlative regardless: he dominated the final day’s running, winning the powerstage – much to his own surprise – and topping the Sunday classification by 28s.
The result moved Ogier up to third in the championship, 33 points behind Evans who now leads Katsuta by seven.
“Finally, the Greek Gods are supporting me!” said Ogier at the finish, ending a 15-year wait for another win in Greece.
“It’s been a long weekend. We knew there was never any time to relax up to this powerstage which was so rough. I couldn’t push in there, I just drove as gently as I could and feel for every stone. Now we have it, a bit of a payback for the one we lost in Portugal.”
Neuville was magnanimous at the finish line, applauding Ogier’s efforts and looking at the upside of how competitive the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 had been.
“I’m between disappointment and somehow a little bit of joy as well, with the fact that we find back a car that is performing well and feeling comfortable in it,” said Neuville at the finish line.
“Mixed feelings. Fair play for Ogier, he did an incredible race as well, it was very tight. We don’t know what would have happened if we punctured.
“In Portugal we benefitted from his puncture and this time he might have benefitted from ours, so that’s rallying.”
Takamoto Katsuta took his fourth podium of the year despite starting as second car on the road on Friday, his only drama a tire delamination on SS4.
“It was quite tough at the beginning of the rally but we knew that,” said Katsuta. “We were doing the best to manage the situation. It went very well.
“I was just trying to avoid all the puncture risk and luckily we didn’t have it; it was quite a lottery but we managed, we are here.”
Josh McErlean claimed a career-best fourth place finish, moving up a place on Sunday morning after a puncture for Adrien Fourmaux.
His rally nearly came to a juddering halt on the penultimate stage, sliding wide at a left-hander and becoming beached on the edge of the road. But McErlean managed to extricate his Ford Puma from the loose stuff and resume with almost a minute lost, setting up a three-way battle for fourth on the powerstage with Sami Pajari and Fourmaux.
McErlean survived a late push from Pajari – who was the second-fastest driver in the Sunday classification – to clinch fourth by 6.7s.
“We definitely didn’t make it easy for ourselves on the previous stage,” said McErlean. “Massive thanks to whole team and every single person that kept on believing in us because it’s been a very tough start to the year.”
After initially battling his team-mate for the lead on Friday morning, Fourmaux had to settle for sixth place at the finish, suffering four punctures across the the three days of gravel stages – including on the powerstage.
Fourmaux suffered more problems than most in Greece
Fourmaux had been catching Katsuta for the final podium place, going fastest on Sunday’s first stage before the first of two Sunday punctures set him back.
“I have to really say thanks to the team because we had a very good car to fight for the win,” said Fourmaux. “We had probably the best car. I’m quite positive for the gravel, it’s just a shame what happened this weekend.”
Championship leader Elfyn Evans had a rally to forget in Greece, picking up seventh place and only mustering a one point on Sunday, for finishing fifth on the powerstage.
“Things were looking pretty OK by Saturday afternoon, things were moving in the right direction after a difficult start,” said Evans. “But the wheels fell off the wagon a little bit with a puncture on the last one [of Saturday] and another one this morning.
“Of course [I am] disappointed with how that turned out; it’s the name of the game sometimes and we have to move on to the next one.”
Evans’ lead has been cut to seven points by Toyota team-mate Katsuta, with rally winner Ogier moving up to third in the title race, 33 points off the top spot. Pajari is fourth, 44 points behind Evans. Fourmaux is the best-placed Hyundai driver in sixth, 61 points off the top spot and two ahead of Neuville.
Dani Sordo had been set for an eighth-placed finish but was retired by Hyundai prior to the powerstage, with his team taking the opportunity for more flexibility on replacing components on his car for the upcoming rallies in Estonia and Finland.
Hyundai’s call to retire Sordo promoted Mārtiņš Sesks up a place; the M-Sport part-timer had been a non-factor in the overall battle when he left service 19 minutes late on Saturday afternoon due to technical issues and accrued 3m10s in penalties.
Oliver Solberg has propped up his championship points account with big points on Sunday at previous events that he’d retired from. But he was compromised by his position as third car on the road on Sunday, only able to muster a single point for being fifth-fastest across Sunday’s four stages as he placed 18th overall.
Solberg suffered another difficult weekend in Greece
He now has a mountain to climb in the title race, falling to fifth and 55 points behind Evans.
“It’s definitely a blow this weekend,” admitted Solberg. “I’m very disappointed. Mentally it’s been very tough lately, to try and reset.”
“I’m feeling stuck a bit. It’s hard but I just have to believe and keep fighting.”
Jon Armstrong reached the finish in 21st position, having retired on Friday due to a turbo failure and restarted the next day. Though he scored no points, he leaves Greece as a WRC stage winner.
Robert Virves scored his second consecutive WRC2 win of the season over his Toksport Škoda team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen, after the three-time WRC2 champion lost the lead on Sunday morning from stopping to change a puncture.
The pair – who also rounded out the overall top 10 – had been engaged in a close fight throughout the rally, running 1-2 since SS3 on Friday morning and never more than 20 seconds apart. But a deflation on the first pass of Loutraki forced Mikkelsen to stop, handing Virves the win.
Jan Solans had held third place heading into the final day but suffered the same fate as Mikklelsen on SS15, then couldn’t get his car started when arriving at the pre-power stage regroup. He checked in 15 minutes late and did not check out again, retiring from fifth place.
That promoted Alejandro Cachón to the final podium position, a minute behind Mikkelsen and two minutes off rally winner Virves.
