WRC
Neuville shades Ogier in Acropolis shakedown
Thierry Neuville made an encouraging start to EKO Acropolis Rally Greece by topping Thursday morning’s shakedown for Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team.
The Belgian, twice an Acropolis winner, set the pace on his third and final pass of the 3.34km test near Loutraki, stopping the clocks in 2min 13.4sec to edge Sébastien Ogier by just one tenth of a second.
Run in hot and sunny conditions, with early-morning temperatures already around 25°C, the short warm-up test offered crews an early taste of the rocky gravel challenge awaiting them across 17 stages and 323.31 competitive kilometres this week.
Neuville’s benchmark came as Hyundai looks to launch a stronger second half of the season, with the remaining seven rounds all taking place on gravel. The Korean manufacturer has won three of the last four Acropolis editions, while Neuville himself triumphed in Greece in 2022 and 2024.
“Luckily we are one of the favourites, as for a long time we have not been,” Neuville said. “The car is so much different on gravel than it is on Tarmac and we need to benefit from it. It is a long rally. We need to somehow try to fight back in the championship.”
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Neuville added that the revised Loutraki-based route gives this year’s event a fresh feeling, despite some familiar Acropolis characteristics.
“There are a couple of new stages here this year and some very old ones from 2012 or 2013, which I have driven in the opposite direction,” he explained. “So it feels basically like a fresh new rally. Very nice stages, very demanding again and, as usual, very rough.”
Ogier was the closest challenger for Toyota Gazoo Racing, his second-run effort of 2min 13.5sec leaving him 0.1sec adrift. The nine-time world champion, an Acropolis winner in 2011, said survival would be central to the weekend.
“I think it’s a usual Greece with a lot of difficult sections to survive,” Ogier said. “The main thing will be to stay out of trouble. I like Greece in general, so it is nice to be here. We are ready.”
Adrien Fourmaux completed the top three in the second Hyundai i20 N Rally1, 2.0sec off Neuville’s pace, while Oliver Solberg was fourth fastest for Toyota after briefly setting the early benchmark on his first loose-surface outing since a difficult FORUM8 Rally Japan.
“We are back on gravel, so I’m very happy,” Solberg said. “We have had good results on gravel with the car. It will be a tough weekend and a long, long weekend, but I’m excited and I feel good in the car.”
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Takamoto Katsuta was fifth, 2.8sec back, ahead of Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari and Mārtiņš Sesks, who reported heavy dust inside his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 after losing the rear-right window on his opening run.
Josh McErlean made a strong start to place eighth for M-Sport Ford, one place ahead of returning Hyundai driver Dani Sordo. Championship leader Elfyn Evans, who faces the challenge of opening the road on Friday, was 10th fastest as Jon Armstrong completed the session in 11th.
“We know normally what it looks like here,” Evans said. “Having said that, it is going to be a weekend with a lot of punctures with so many loose rocks. We have to try and stay out of trouble and do the best we can.”
The rally begins later today with the 1.86km EKO Super Special Stage at The Ellinikon Sports Park in Athens before Friday’s opening gravel leg, the longest day of the rally at 129.22km.
