Remembering Markko Märtin's dramatic Acropolis win

In 2002, Märtin had rocketed into a 50-second lead after the opening leg of the classic Greek event, leaving Ford team-mate Colin McRae and the rest of the WRC stars in his dust. A puncture in the Elatia test midway through Saturday cost more than three minutes. A day and a half later, McRae won and Märtin was sixth. The Estonian’s illusive maiden WRC win had escaped him.

Worse still, the Scot openly accepted – without the puncture – there was nothing he could do to bridge the near-minute gap to Markko.

In 2003, the road just south of Kamena Vourla hit Märtin’s hopes hard. When would the Elatia stage give him a break?

He drove close to 20 kilometres with the bonnet pinned back against the windscreen.

“I could just about see under the bonnet,” he said. “OK, the vision wasn’t great, but probably the worst thing was that the bonnet was blocking the air vent on the roof, so we weren’t getting any air coming to the car. It was so hot!”

But this time, nothing was going to stand in the way of a famous win for Märtin and his ever-popular co-driver Michael ‘Beef’ Park. Two decades ago this year, they delivered an outstanding victory from another Greek drama.