WRC
Neuville leads brutal Acropolis after punishing Friday morning
Thierry Neuville grabbed the lead of EKO Acropolis Rally Greece after a punishing Friday morning loop that immediately delivered on the rally’s fearsome reputation.
The Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team driver ended the opening gravel loop 11.0sec clear of Sébastien Ogier, while M-Sport Ford’s Jon Armstrong starred to hold a superb third overall after three rock-strewn stages north of Loutraki.
Adrien Fourmaux had looked set to lead at the mid-leg remote service after a stunning time on Parnassos Mt, but a front-right puncture on the following Stiri test dropped the Frenchman from first to fourth.
Neuville, twice an Acropolis winner, avoided the worst of the drama to lead after SS4 despite losing aerodynamic balance when the front splitter went missing from his i20 N Rally1.
“It was quite close at the end with the tyres,” Neuville said. “I should have started with six new this morning, that would have been better. It’s incredibly rough out there.
“I was struggling quite a lot in here with the fast sections. We are missing the front splitter, so the aerodynamic balance is off.”
© WRC
The morning began with Bauxites, where Fourmaux beat Neuville by just 0.1sec to give Hyundai an early one-two on the first full gravel stage of the rally. Ogier was third-fastest, 2.2sec adrift, while Oliver Solberg’s hopes were immediately dented by a front-left puncture that cost him more than one minute.
Fourmaux then produced the drive of the morning on Parnassos Mt, going 13.8sec faster than Ogier and 1.9sec quicker than Neuville to move into the rally lead, but the Acropolis struck back immediately on Stiri. Fourmaux reached the finish with a front-right puncture and lost 31.4sec to stage winner Ogier, handing the lead to Neuville.
“It must be a puncture,” he said. “The tyre wear was okay, but I don’t know why, because I didn’t have any impact. I was very careful in the beginning, but there are still a lot of rocks. It’s a long rally, I don’t care.”
Ogier was fastest on Stiri by 1.9sec from both Neuville and Armstrong, but the Frenchman played down any sense of control after a morning dominated by rock impacts, delaminations and tyre management.
© WRC
“It’s just pure luck,” Ogier said. “Pure luck, really.”
Armstrong’s morning was one of the standout stories. The Northern Irishman went third-fastest on Parnassos Mt and matched Neuville’s time on Stiri to climb to third overall, 21.2sec from the lead and 7.1sec behind Ogier.
“To be honest we had quite a good run,” Armstrong said after Stiri. “The stage is tricky and gets a bit more rough towards the end. I just tried to focus on being clean and getting a lot of traction. We just tried to use our road position.”
Team-mates Josh McErlean and Mārtiņš Sesks also survived the morning to make it three M-Sport Ford Pumas inside the top six overall. McErlean held fifth, 36.8sec off the lead, with Sesks sixth despite tyre concerns after the final stage of the loop.
Sami Pajari was seventh after a strange loss of power on Stiri cost him around 13sec, while Takamoto Katsuta reached the tyre fitting zone eighth after a rear-right delamination. Championship leader Elfyn Evans was ninth, 1min 18.6sec off the lead, after a morning spent sweeping thick loose gravel and large rocks from first on the road.
“The morning’s generally been much worse than even what we expected, and we expected it to be bad,” Evans said. “The road sweeping was horrendous, these massive stones on the uphill hairpins. For sure I didn’t do a great job of it, but it’s still very bad.”
Dani Sordo’s strong start ended on Parnassos Mt when he stopped to change a front-right puncture and lost almost two minutes. Solberg also remained on the back foot after his Bauxites puncture, although he reached the end of Stiri without further major trouble to hold 10th.
Friday's action continues this afternoon with Elikon Mt, a second pass of Stiri and Thiva, completing the longest leg of the rally at 129.22km.
