Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe led Acropolis Rally Greece after a day of drama, the faith that their Hyundai i20N is a competitive machine on gravel vindicated.
After Sebastien Ogier led the rally overnight after a short superspecial stage on Thursday evening, it was Neuville who did the early running when the rally proper got underway, taking the lead after stage two.
The 2024 WRC Champion briefly lost the top spot to his teammates Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria after stage three before the French Hyundai pair lost it again on the following stage with a puncture.
Neuville retook the lead which he held through the rest of the longest day of the rally, holding a 9.7 second lead over Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais who had the best road position of Toyota’s quintet of drivers.
The down-to-earth Belgian said: “It is always nice to lead but it doesn’t mean anything to us at the moment as the rally is very long. Tomorrow will be very tough for the car and the tyres.”
Ogier is wary of his road position for Saturday: “It’s been a good day for us, can be happy with that. In this one we will lose time with this massive cleaning effect” (on Saturday).
The drive of the day belonged to M-Sport’s Jon Armstrong and Shayne Byrne who held third overall in their Ford Puma after SS4 and went on to claim their maiden WRC stage win on SS5. Their podium position was short-lived for a puncture in stage seven, then a mechanical problem in the same stage forced their retirement.
Fourmaux moved up into third, having dropped time in SS4 with a puncture, followed by Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy in fourth in the second M-Sport Puma; the usually luckless Irish pairing enjoyed a clean run and made the most of their road position, ending the day with 6.8 seconds in hand over fellow Puma driver Martins Sesks and co-driver Renars Francis in fifth position overall.
McErlean was delighted with his day; “It is a nice position to be in. It has been a solid day, and we tried to stay out of trouble as much as possible. The biggest thing was to try and get some sort of road position for tomorrow and I think that has been achieved.”
Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston ended the opening day’s action in sixth with their Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates and championship leaders Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, clawing their way to seventh overall.
The Welshman lost massive amounts of time opening the road which featured only one repeated stage and found himself over two minutes adrift of the lead having been ranked only tenth after SS2. “We knew it was going to be tough, and it was even more tough than expected.”
Dani Sordo and Candido Carrera held eighth for Hyundai after suffering a puncture in SS3 with the leading WRC2 pairing of Andreas Mikkelsen/Jørn Listerud in their Skoda Fabia RS in ninth overall.
The Norwegian ended Friday 8.2sec ahead of Robert Virves in class, with Alejandro Cachón third among the Rally2 runners.
Rounding out the top ten was Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen after losing time with a puncture in stage five.
Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson had a torrid day, picking up a puncture in Friday’s first stage. The day unraveled completely in the final test when the young Swede ran wide on a corner and beached his GR Yaris and was forced to retire for the day.
“I just came in a bit hot and got the rear out and got stuck on the bank there. It was a slippy surface that is for sure,” said Solberg. “Today wasn’t really about the speed, after that puncture I was trying to drive slow. I haven’t been pushing today. It is a hard time, and it seems that is the way it is at the moment,” said the disconsolate youngster.
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