Neuville remains just ahead of Ogier after Day 2 in Rally Greece

9th September 2023 0 By Kamron Kent

Hyundai’s Theirry Neuville leads the second day of competition at Acropolis Rally Greece with 2.8 seconds in hand over Toyota’s charging Frenchman, Sebastien Ogier.

After the first day of full competition, but on the second day of the weekend, Neuville stands as the early rally leader with 2.8s over Ogier. The Belgian toppled Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera from the top spot after the morning’s first stage, Loutraki 1, and enhanced his rally lead to 7.4 seconds.

However, when the drivers reached the final stage of the day, Elatia, the Belgian who had been on brilliant form all day to retain the lead suffered a mechanical problem which was suspected to be around the transmission. Although the Belgian only secured one stage win on Friday, the Hyundai driver led the day from start to finish.

Ogier finished the first full day of running down in second, in his first appearance since June, and looked in contention to snatch away the rally lead at the end of Friday. However, the eight-time world champion damaged his Yaris’ rear wing and this hindered the Frenchman’s fight for the lead.

Toyota’s championship leader, Kalle Rovanpera secured his only stage win on SS3: Pissia where he finished 3.1 seconds ahead of Neuville and rounded out the day in third, 25 seconds off the lead. Rovanpera opened the road in Greece and his speed was hindered by the course conditions.

The stages were drier than expected, after recent rain, and the Finn bled time due to loose stones on the drying surface. The defending world champion also had a specular moment in the third stage as he ran over a sudden dip in the road which launched the rear of his Yaris into the air.

Fortunately, the Finn’s Toyota landed back onto its rear wheels which allowed Rovanpera to continue on.

Rovanpera’s teammate, Elfyn Evans sat just behind the Finnish world champion by five seconds as Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi rounded out the top five. The Finnish Hyundai driver was forced to nurse his wounded i20 as the car had a water leak for most of the afternoon.

Toyota and Hyundai completed the top 10 with Takamoto Katsuta and Daniel Sordo in sixth and seventh respectively, just ahead of WRC2 rally leader Nikolay Gryazin.

M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak was the last WRC driver to sit inside the top 10 with a ninth-place finish as the Estonian had problems with his Rally1 Puma. After the problems, Tanak was slapped with a hefty penalty for being 22 minutes late to a time control point.

At the end of the first full day of competition, the Estonian sat between both Gryazin and Yohan Rossel in 10th.

Of the last WRC runners, Ford’s Jourdan Sederidis sat in 30th in the overall standings after he announced this would be his last rally at the highest pedigree of rallying. Whereas, Ford’s last driver Pierre-Louis Loubet failed to start the day after he had problems on the Liasion section ahead of the opening stage.

That’s all for the article; Neuville remains just ahead of Ogier after Day 2 in Rally Greece!

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

CategoryNews Rallying WRC