Kalle Rovanperä has become the leader of the Acropolis Rally after the first two stages of Friday’s stage. The Toyota driver made a good scratch in SS3 to take the lead with three seconds ahead of Ott Tänak. In the fight for the title, Frenchman Sébastien Ogier resists in third position despite opening the trackwhile Belgian Thierry Neuville is in fifth place, just behind Dani Sordo. Elfyn Evans has been left out of the equation after a problem in the change which has made him lose two minutes with the WRC leaders.
The ‘truce’ granted by the heavens has served so that the Acropolis Rally has started with dry sections, although with still compacted soil. The combination of these terrain conditions, the starting order factor and the tires has created a global scenario in which opening the track has not been so unfavorable and the sweep factor has been significantly reduced. Point in favor of Sébatien Ogier, more after the problems of one of his two rivals for the title. In fact, the Gap driver started the day with a second place in SS2, only behind an Ott Tänak who scored the scratch.
If the SS2 started 15 minutes late due to an accident outside the rally and it was written in the most absolute equality, with the four best drivers within 2.5 seconds, in the SS3 the first turn of the rally took place -and also for World Cup-. Shortly after starting the third stage of the rally and with Ogier already on the stage, Elfyn Evans reported a gearbox problem that made him start late and ride the stage in sixth gear. The Welsh driver lost 40 seconds due to the penalty and more than 1 minute in the stage, without also having intermediate assistance. Evans was thus out of the game.
Oblivious to his partner’s troubles, Kalle Ronvaperä achieved the scratch in SS3 by a narrow margin of 2.1 seconds over Dani Sordo -sanction for the Cantabrian of 10 seconds for skipping the start on the sidelines-, result that also served the Finn to position himself as the new leader. Ott Tänak is second, while Sébastien Ogier is third, in an unbeatable position. The Frenchman has Thierry Neuville, fifth behind Sordo, almost 15 seconds behind, while Elfyn Evans is out of the fight. Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith rank sixth and seventh with the Fords ahead of Pierre-Louis Loubet.
Oliver Solberg occupies the ninth position with the best ‘Rally2’, a situation that also gives him the lead in WRC2. The Swedish rider beats Andreas Mikkelsen by 6.4 seconds, while Marquito Bulacia occupies the third position in the silver category, since Mads Ostberg, with differential problems, accumulates more than 8 minutes and 20 seconds of loss. For its part, Chris Ingram rules in WRC3, albeit with a narrow 6.2 second margin over Emil Lindholm. Kajetan Kajetanowicz closes the provisional podium with three tenths of a disadvantage over the Finn. Leader Yohan Rossel is fourth.
Classification after SS3 of the 65th Acropolis Rally
The Acropolis Rally continues this Friday (12: 24h) with the celebration of the four remaining sections of the first stage of the event. Drivers and co-drivers will race 52.46 kilometers on the streets of Athens.