Neuville inherits WRC Acropolis Rally Greece lead into final day

Neuville inherits WRC Acropolis Rally Greece lead into final day

7th September 2024 0 By Kamron Kent

Hyundai’s World Rally Championship leader, Thierry Neuville has inherited the Acropolis Rally Greece lead after both his teammates, Ott Tanak and Daniel Sordo, suffered problems on Saturday. 

Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

After a torrid time for Toyota on the first day of the action, it was time for Hyundai to have its fair share of trouble. 

The team’s Ott Tanak was leading the rally at the start of Saturday, but that quickly disappeared after he was forced to stop twice on the opening test, giving the lead to teammate Daniel Sordo. 

However, on the last stage of the morning loop, Sordo dropped out of the rally lead – down to second – after the Spaniard suffered a delaminated right-rear tyre. This allowed the championship leader Thierry Neuville to take the rally lead. 

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans’ horrid weekend also continued into Saturday, having rolled his Rally1 Yaris at a slow right-hand hairpin. He was able to get the car going again but he waited for, third-placed, Sebastien Ogier to slip on by before moving. 

So how did the second day end? 

Neuville stands as the rally leader with a total time of three hours, one minute and five seconds. Sordo and Ogier completed the top three, 53.7 seconds and one minute, 20.9 seconds behind respectively. 

Despite a poor start to the day, Tanak remained within the top five as he finished the day in fourth, over three minutes behind his championship-leading teammate. 

WRC2’s championship contender, Sami Pajari was the leading driver of the lower category but found himself inside the top 10 – in fifth – following the misfortunes of the other Rally1 contenders. 

The Finnish WRC2 driver was followed by fellow WRC2 competitors, Robert Virves, Yohan Rossel, Kajetan Kajetanowicz, Georg Linnamae and Fabrizio Zaldivar, who completed the top 10 respectively. 

Jourdan Sederidis was the leading Rally1 driver outside the top 10 as the Greek occupied 17th in his Ford Puma, followed by Evans in 25th and Adrien Fourmaux in 30th. 

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta was the last of the running Rally1 drivers, down in 40th, after M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster retired when he got stuck in a ditch on Stage nine. 

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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

About the author

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.

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