Pierre-Louis Loubet has given the surprise in the Acropolis Rally and has placed himself as the new leader in Greece, beating Sébastien Loeb. There are no hierarchies for the French pilot. Esapekka Lappi closes the provisional podium.
A dream! That’s what you’re living Pierre-Louis Loubet at the Acropolis Rally Greece. The French driver is not only having a spectacular pace with the Ford Puma Rally1, but he has also achieved his first scratch in the World Cup. A result that also places him at the head of the general classification in Greece after beating Sébastien Loeb, nothing more and nothing less. The French pilot is in a cloud.
It seemed that Sébastien Loeb had everything in his hands to continue leading in Greece after the second block of two stages of the day. In SS4 he matched times with Esapekka Lappi and stretched his lead to 6.4 seconds. Nevertheless, on the SS5 Loeb and was going slightly long in a hairpin and lost all the advantage obtained up to that moment with the Ford Puma with number 19.
Pierre-Louis Loubet leads a World Championship event for the first time after achieving his first absolute scratch in the championship
A small setback that seemed to be of little importance, beyond losing a few seconds to Esapekka Lappi. Less if compared to the bad luck of a Craig Breen who was once again moving away from the fight for noble positions. A puncture on SS4 ruined Breen’s performance and it made him lose more than two minutes with the leading riders.
However, what nobody counted on is the irruption of the figure of Pierre-Louis Loubet. It is true that the Frenchman has ridden very fast from the first stage of the day, but nobody expected the final rush from him. Loubet achieved the scratch in SS5, first in his career in the WRC, to hit the table. And he did not do it in any way, since 3.3 seconds ahead of Esapekka Lappi.
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Historic moment
With this result, Pierre-Louis Loubet not only celebrated his first scratch, but also also took the lead of the Acropolis Rally. At the end of the first five sections, Loubet has a 1.9sec lead over Sébastien Loeb, his teammate, referent and almost mentor. For his part, Esapekka Lappi has stormed the third position after beating Thierry Neuville in SS5.
Ott Tänak closes the ‘top 5’, although the differences are still short and the Estonian is less than 14 seconds behind the head. For his part, Dani Sordo is sixth, while leader Kalle Rovanperä remains in an awkward ninth positionburdened by the fact of opening the track in some very broken sections and with a very wide layer of loose sand.
to discard
At the gates of the ‘top 10’, Emil Lindholm remains at the helm in WRC2, with an advantage that has skyrocketed over half a minute over Nikolay Gryazin. For his part, Teemu Suninen now occupies the third position after surpassing Yohan Rossell. The Frenchman is not quite comfortable, but there is also a certain component in his rhythm of not wanting to risk the problems of Andreas Mikkelsen.
Classification after SS5 of the 66th Acropolis Rally Greece
The Acropolis Rally continues this Friday (2:15 p.m.) with the dispute of the last two sections of the first stage of the test. Pilots and co-pilots will dispute 44 kilometers against the clock.
Photos: M Sport