Ogier looking forward to Rally Greece challenge with new base
22nd June 2026Toyota’s defending world champion, Sebastien Ogier, is looking forward to the new challenge the World Rally Championship’s Acropolis Rally Greece will provide as it stars in a new home.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool
Ogier has said he is looking forward to the challenge at the WRC’s upcoming Rally Greece, which gets underway this week. This comes as the sport has shifted its usual Greek home ahead of the 2026 event.
In previous years, the event has been hosted in Lamia, which was a more northern-based service park at the Acropolis event. However, for this event, it will return to Loutraki, west of Athens and on the western coast of the country.
As such, it means there will be stages that will make up the event, which will be new for some of the drivers, or ones which haven’t been featured in a while.
With only one win in the bag so far this season, and looking to add to it this weekend, Ogier is looking forward to the challenge the new position poses to the event. He said:
“Returning to Loutraki means there will be stages that are new or that nobody including myself has driven for a very long time, and this is a challenge I enjoy.
“Having come close to winning last time we were on gravel in Portugal, we will try to achieve that in Greece.”
2026 Acropolis Rally Greece: The full WRC stage guide and times
Ogier has not had the fortune of Greek luck in recent years, which he confirms. In recent years, Ogier has crashed out in 2024 and then lost the rally to Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, last season, when he finished second.
In 2024, the nine-time world champion (then eight-time champ) rolled his Yaris as he battled Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville for the rally win, rolling it on the Wolf Power Stage. Despite being able to get the car going again, he was only able to best 16th overall, even though he ran second overall going into the final stage.
“Greece is a country that I always enjoy going to, and the Acropolis Rally is one of the historic events in our sport,” said Ogier.
“It’s a rally that I managed to win quite early in my career, but since it came back to the calendar, we haven’t quite had the luck you need on this kind of rough event, with second last year being our best finish.”
Read more WRC here:
- Acropolis Rally Greece: the latest WRC weather forecast
- Elfyn Evans believes the rally championship remains ‘very open’
- Toyota expecting a ‘demanding’ end to 2026 WRC season
- 2026 Acropolis Rally Greece: The full WRC stage guide and times
- Fourmaux aiming for win to get Hyundai title bid back on
- More than Machine success increases WRC profile
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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.
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.
