Aiming to become the second Estonian to lift the
trophy in the past three seasons, following in the footsteps of 2022 champion
Robert Virves, Jürgenson safely navigated his M-Sport Ford-prepared Ford Fiesta
Rally3 through some of the roughest Acropolis stages in recent memory, leading
for large portions of the day.
But with his closest rivals for the title
sitting further down the leaderboard, Jürgenson took a conservative approach to
the second running of Tarzan, giving up the lead to reigning FIA Junior ERC
champion Norbert Maior, who is targeting a maiden victory at world level.
The weekend in Greece began in earnest with an accident
further up the road seeing the opening test of the rally cancelled. When action
finally got underway it was championship fourth-placed Ali Türkkan setting the
early pace, charging through SS2 – Dafni 1 - to claim an all-important Wolf Stage
Win point and establish himself as the early leader.
But a suspected wheel issue on the next stage saw
Türkkan pull over to check his Fiesta, and the Turkish driver lost more than
a minute. He dropped to tenth, handing the lead temporarily to Maior.
It was short-lived however for Romanian Maior, with
Jürgenson overtaking him on the next stage, only to hand it back before
overnight service.
Taylor Gill, who won last month’s Secto Rally
Finland and currently sits second in the championship, had been on track to finish
Friday in third position. But the Australian dropped more than a minute through
the second running of Tarzan with front left wheel damage and fell back to fifth.
Remarkably, Türkkan was able to fight his way
back up to third, winning a brace of Friday afternoon’s stages to collect two
more valuable Wolf Stage Win points, which could prove incredibly crucial come
Sunday. He is exactly 30sec clear of Belgium’s Tom Rensonnet, who divides Türkkan
and Gill.
Another driver who arrived in Greece well within
championship contention was Paraguay’s Diego Dominguez. Spurred on by a message
of support from Paraguay’s President Santiago Pẽna, Dominguez was strongly positioned
in third overall before breaking a rear suspension arm on SS5, seeing him tumble
down the standings to end Friday a lowly 10th. There was however some
consolation for the South American with victory on the day’s final stage.
Action resumes on Saturday morning with a further
seven grueling tests, highlighted by two runs of the world-famous Aghii Theodori
stage.
Europe
Poland
Turkey