The legendary WRC event on rough terrain returns

Moving into the second half of the rally calendar, the 10th round of the WRC was the Acropolis Rally Greece. It used to be one of the roughest road events alongside the Safari rally and was also known for the highest retirement rate. However, when it made its return in the WRC calendar after a long absence last year, Acropolis stages were composed of smoother roads, which was disarming for the competitors, and the majority viewed it as unlike a regular Acropolis.

Therefore, this year the organisers revamped the structure of stages to make it a tough test again, including the return of classic stages. The itinerary of Day 1 turned out to be an especially tough schedule, as no repair or service was available by mechanics throughout the day starting from the SSS1 inside Athens’ Olympic Stadium throughout to Lamia, what was traditionally a transfer point of the rally, and a tyre change was only allowed once.

Just by looking into this prior information, anybody could have easily guessed that this year’s Acropolis Rally would be a rough battle. However, the actual rally developed into a survival rally far more severe than expected.

Ford team’s surprising 1-2 dominance early on

The SSS1 inside the Olympic Stadium attracted about 60,000 spectators and the day kicked off with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville posting the fastest time, and a full-blown battle began from SS2 on the following day’s rough roads. It was Sébastien Loeb of Ford and his young teammate, Pierre-Louis Loubet, who made a start dash taking advantage of starting from the back.

Although Loeb’s speed was within expectation, Loubet fighting for the lead was totally unexpected as he had not been able to make any impact since joining the Ford squad this season. On the other hand, the front runners on the road as championship leaders with Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä at the top of the list, struggled as road sweepers, and were hindered by massive layers of dust. In addition to extraordinary amounts of dust, the fact that there was only one repeat stage on Day 1 as drivers moved from Athens to Lamia while competing on the stages, made it difficult for those driving early in the order even to remain in the middle group no matter how hard they pushed.

Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi and Hyundai’s Neuville competed persistently against the Ford team running at the front, but the two Ford drivers kept the top position in turns, and completed Day 1 in a 1-2 formation with Loeb at the top followed by Loubet.

Slowing down of Ford and Hyundai’s dominance of top positions

However, a drastic change occurred early on Day 2. Moving on to the west from Lamia, Day 2 marked the longest day of the rally, repeating Pyrgos, the longest test of the rally and the Tarzan stage which traditionally determines the winner. On SS8, the first stage of the day and the first run through Pyrgos, Loeb suffered from a problem with his electrical system and retired. Furthermore, Loubet also moved down greatly due to a burst tyre. Ford’s dominance had come to an abrupt end.

This promoted Neuville to the top and Ott Tänak to 2nd and Hyundai took over the 1-2 formation. Toyota’s Lappi, who fought tenaciously, emerged in 2nd position overtaking Tänak, but his engine stopped on SS12 in the second loop of the stages. This helped Dani Sordo, who was in the 4th place, to claim 3rd, and Hyundai not only secured its 1-2 formation, but concluded the day in 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Elfyn Evans, the remaining Toyota driver, was 4th overnight.

Unimpeachable 1-2-3 finish by Hyundai

Although the final day of the event was as short as only three special stages, totalling 45.06km, there was speculation of Hyundai deploying a team order. Should the team ask Neuville to slow down and let Tänak win, the points difference with Rovanperä would be narrowed and there would be more hope for the Drivers’ Championship title. Neuville and Tänak were 27.9 seconds apart, and considering the remaining distance on stages, it was not realistic for Tänak to overtake the lead just in his own right.

However, no clear team order had been deployed before the start of Day 3. Against such a backdrop, Toyota’s Evans who was right behind Sordo in 3rd, was forced to retire due to a turbo problem on the road section to the first stage of the day. With this incidence, there remained no driver to threaten Hyundai’s 1-2-3 finish.

In this situation on SS14, the first stage of the day, Tänak pushed himself hard and set the fastest time.   However, Neuville followed with the second fastest time and the gap shortened by only 2.9 seconds. It was no longer  possible for Tänak to overtake the lead by himself. Soon after this, Hyundai ordered their drivers to keep their positions. Hyundai’s three drivers kept their pace as instructed, and accomplished the team’s first 1-2-3 finish, dominating the podium.

Tänak shortened the gap with Rovanperä to 53 points from what was 72 points with his second place and the fastest time he posted on the last power stage.  Had the team made Tänak win by a team order, the gap to the championship leader would have been 46 points. We will find out in the course of the remaining three events if Hyundai should have switched the order between their two drivers.

The 4th and 5th places were taken by Ford’s Loubet and Craig Breen respectively. As for Toyota, although Katsuta clung to 6th place, Rovanperä who was expected to clinch the title this time finished 15th. He could not gain any points due to being a road sweeper on Day 1 and further losing some 14 minutes due to a crash on Day 2. His only achievement was points secured by finishing 2nd in the power stage.