Neuville and Katsuta fastest in Rally Greece shakedown test
26th June 2025Hyundai’s defending champion Thierry Neuville and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta shared the fastest time on Thursday’s shakedown event for the World Rally Championship’s Acropolis Rally Greece.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Content Pool
It was a short 3.62km Lygaria stage which allowed the crews to shakedown their machinery ahead of the Rally of Gods, in rising temperatures with what is expected to be a hot rally weekend.
Despite lingering dust from other competitors, Neuville and Katsuta were the joint-fastest crews out on the short test near Lamia. Both crews posted their best times of 2 minutes and 37.9 seconds with the former looking to repeat his success of 2024, where he won the event.
Ott Tanak made it a double top three for Hyundai after shakedown, 0.6s off the pace of the top two, whilst Toyota’s world champions, Kalle Rovanpera and Sebastien Ogier completed the top five, in fourth and fifth respectively.
M-Sport Ford’s Joshua McErlean topped the opening run of the shakedown but later fell down the order to finish sixth ahead of the driver’s championship leader, and Toyota driver, Elfyn Evans, in seventh.
Regardless of this, Evans – thanks to his championship position – will open the road on Friday, sweeping the stages for the rest of the competitors.
Hyundai’s final runner, Adrien Fourmaux finished eighth ahead of the remaining Ford Puma’s of Gregoire Munster and Martins Sesks, in ninth and 10th. This left Toyota’s Sami Pajari in 11th. Jourdan Serderidis, the last of the Rally1 contenders in the Ford Puma, at this home event, finished 17th overall.
The action continues this evening, after the ceremonial start, with a 1.5km super special stage in the country’s capital. There will be an overnight rest before the teams are back at it again, early in the morning, for a six-stage stint on Friday.
Read more WRC here:
- Rally Greece: what stages will make up the Acropolis WRC event?
- Rally Greece: the latest weather report ahead of WRC event
- WRC 2025 Acropolis Rally Greece – Entry List
- Ogier leads Tanak at WRC Rally Italia Sardegna as Fourmaux rolls
- Notional time gives Ogier WRC Rally Italia Sardegna morning lead
- Ogier survives brutal Friday to lead WRC Rally Italia Sardegna
Please give us a follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the latest news from the world of Motorsport! You can also support us on Patreon or on our website!
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.
