Thierry Neuville heads into Saturday’s Acropolis Rally as overall leader after an action-packed Friday in Greece
2023 World Rally Championship (WRC) leader Thierry Neuville heads into Saturday’s Acropolis Rally in Greece with a slender lead over Toyota driver Sébastien Ogier after a tough battle on the rough gravel stages. The Belgian won only one of the five Friday stages, but set a series of consistent times and is currently 2.8 seconds ahead of Ogier.
Kalle Rovanperä, the championship leader and rally leader, was able to limit the collateral damage by being the first driver on the track and finished Friday in third place, 25.5 seconds behind, while his Toyota title rival Elfyn Evans was fourth, a further 5.5 seconds behind. Hyundai driver Esapekka Lappi was fifth ahead of Toyota driver Takamoto Katsuta, with Dani Sordo seventh.
M-Sport-Ford had another difficult day, starting with Pierre-Louis Loubet having to retire before the second stage with a suspected faulty water pump. Ott Tänak moved up to fourth place before a late exit from the tyre fitting zone resulted in a time penalty that dropped the 2019 world champion to eighth.
The hot and dry weather from the morning continued into the afternoon, making for much drier roads than those previously driven on, where a storm had left puddles.
The course of the rally changed before the afternoon began. Tänak had a problem with the water pump in the middle of the tyre fitting zone, which could be fixed but came at a high price. Tänak left the zone 22 minutes late, which resulted in a time penalty of 3:40 minutes.
Ogier: Best time on first stage
Ogier set the fastest time on the first stage of the afternoon, stage four, the second pass through Loutraki (10.37 kilometres). Officials eventually abandoned the stage for spectator safety reasons after eight of the nine remaining Rally1 cars had completed the course. The eight-time world champion, who is only contesting a partial season, was 2.2 seconds faster than rally leader Neuville, who extended his overall lead to 2.4 seconds.
The stage was held in hot and dry conditions, which proved to be a disadvantage for the first competitors on the track. Rovanperä, who took to the track first, dropped to third overall behind Ogier after finishing 6.0 seconds slower than his Toyota teammate.
Evans and Lappi shared fourth overall, 15.6 seconds off the fastest time. Lappi showed improved pace and set the third fastest time on the fourth stage, but then the Finn had to stop on a road section to repair a leaking radiator.
The second stage of the loop had damp patches, which again benefited Pirelli’s soft tyres. Neuville made the most of the risk of using four soft tyres for the bumpy passage through the fifth stage (Livadia), when the Belgian set a lightning fast benchmark and was 5.0 seconds quicker than his rival Ogier.
“It was difficult to make a tyre choice before the stage, but in the end I said I had to give it my all,” Neuville said. “What we can take now is good for tomorrow, but it wasn’t a nice stage to be honest. “
It looked as though Neuville would take his second stage win of the event before an excited Tänak lit up the timing displays. The Estonian benefited from a better position on the road after his water pump failure and was 5.9 seconds quicker than Neuville.
Ogier: Soft tyres spared
Neuville left the stage feeling good, however, as he extended his lead over Ogier to 7.4 seconds, who in turn had opted to go easy on some of his soft tyres.
“It was the right decision, but the rally is very long and we don’t have so many soft tyres,” Ogier said of Neuville’s time and choice of full-soft tyres. “It’s all a question of strategy.”
Lappi managed to pilot his injured Hyundai to fourth fastest time ahead of teammate Sordo and Katsuta. Rovanperä bore the brunt of the slippery, loose gravel as he was the first car out on track. The Finn was quicker than Evans, but was 20.2 seconds behind leader Neuville in the overall standings.
Rovanperä also struggled on the sixth stage (Elatia), the longest of the day with more than 28 kilometres. The Toyota driver lost ten seconds, but was able to maintain his third place overall.
The stage was won by Ogier, although the Frenchman lost the upper level of the rear wing of his Yaris. He was 4.6 seconds faster than Neuville, who probably had a problem with the rear differential.
Ogier was not the only driver to suffer damage: team-mate Evans lost part of his rear wing on his way to the second fastest time, which moved the Welshman from sixth to fourth overall.
Yohann Rossel took the lead in WRC2 after M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux retired with a puncture on stage six.
Six stages await the teams on Saturday.
