Kalle Rovanperä took an early lead on the Acropolis Rally by winning Thursday evening’s superspecial stage in his Toyota GR Yaris. The world champion heads Hyundai drivers Esapekka Lappi and Thierry Neuville after the short city stage.
Looking to bounce back after crashing out his home event, Rovanperä was 0.3 seconds faster than Lappi on the asphalt-based stage which was less than a mile long. With no chance to change tires ahead of Friday morning’s opening stages, most drivers opted to use a mixture of hard and soft rubber, including Rovanperä who ran one hard tire.
Wet conditions on Friday’s gravel stages would usually have been preferable for Rovanperä as he opens the road. But the amount of rainfall that Greece has experienced over the past few days makes it less clear what position on the road will be preferable.
“It’s not little bit [of rain] anymore,” said Rovanperä. “For sure, I have to hope that the conditions is better for me than normally on the dry – it’s really difficult rally. Opening the road now will be interesting but after the disappointment in Finland, I want to do a good race and we have to fight for it, for sure.”
Lappi was the first of a closely-matched Hyundai trio, just 0.1s faster than team-mate Thierry Neuville, with Dani Sordo a further 0.1s back. “I’m not sure if nobody likes the unpredictable conditions which can be very demanding, but I’m sure it’s going to be very entertaining,” said Lappi.
Neuville clipped a kerb on his run but is full of confidence after impressive performances in Estonia and Finland. He said: “There’s a tough rally ahead of us but I think we’re going to enjoy it.”
In contrast, Ott Tänak comes to Greece on the back of two very difficult events. The M-Sport driver lies fifth overall, 0.2s behind Sordo after the opening stage but within a second of the lead.
“The priority is to get a consistent run through without too much drama,” said Tänak. “That would help us after a couple of not-so-good events.”
Sébastien Ogier, making his first start since winning the Safari Rally, was 0.8s slower than Sordo. He is joint sixth with Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta.
Tänak’s team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet, who impressed on this event last year, was eighth fastest, 0.4s slower than the Toyota duo.
Rally Finland winner Elfyn Evans took a very cautious approach to the stage and lies 10th, 2.8s off the overall pace and behind the leading WRC2 runner, Andreas Mikkelsen.
Mikkelsen got off to a much better start than on last year’s event when he ruined his rally by damaging a wheel on the Olympic Stadium superspecial stage. On this occasion, the championship leader drove a very precise, tidy stage to go fastest in his Škoda Fabia RS.
