Hyundai’s Dani Sordo elevated his lead over his World Rally Championship team-mate Thierry Neuville to shut out a dramatic Saturday morning on the Acropolis Rally.
Sordo, competing in a phase-time marketing and marketing campaign, inherited the rally lead when his Hyundai team-mate Ott Tanak misplaced time following two tyre screw ups on stage seven.
The Spaniard drove smartly via the 2 keen gravel stages to open up a 10.3s advantage over championship leader Neuville.
Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier climbed to third [+1m41.2s] with Tanak falling to fourth [+3m35.1s] after his tyre woes. M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster leapt from seventh to fifth [+4m01.1s] in front of top WRC2 runners Sami Pajari and Robert Virves.
M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta rejoined the rally after their respective retirements on Friday.
Tanak generated basically the foremost headline from the morning stages when the rally leader suffered a double puncture in stage seven (Rengini, 28.67km).
He had started Saturday with a 21.8s margin over Sordo sooner than a just correct rear puncture halted his development five kilometres into the stage. The Estonian pulled to the side of the avenue to alternate the wheel.
Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja most tantalizing misplaced 1m21.6s, however the rally lead had evaporated.
To originate matters worse, a 2nd puncture arrived 10 kilometres later, this time, the front shimmering. Tanak finally reached the stage discontinuance losing 4m06.4s shedding him from the lead to fourth overall.
Dani Sordo, Candido Carrera, Hyundai World Rally Crew Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport
“The first one became off the rim and the 2nd one became a unethical rim,” said Tanak, who became basically the most tantalizing driver from the five title contenders to handbook certain of be troubled on Friday.
Tanak’s double puncture handed Sordo the rally lead by 7.2s from team-mate and championship leader Thierry Neuville.
Neuville won the stage by 0.2s from Ogier, who moved to third following Tanak’s problems.
The rocky and abrasive stipulations were replaced by a sandy avenue floor so as to add one other self-discipline for the crews to tackle in stage eight (Thiva, 20.95km),
The gentle avenue floor made rotating the automobile keen with Fourmaux and Ogier each comparing the stage to take care of “driving on a seaside”.
Tyre ideas differed among the many crews however it absolutely became Ogier, who opted for a onerous and gentle mix, that won the stage by 7.4s from the onerous tyre shod Sordo.
“It is now not fun to drive this stage, it is miles take care of driving on the seaside. Elephantine of sand in each characteristic, I’m combating to turn the automobile in each characteristic,” said Ogier.
Sordo’s effort became 3.1s sooner than Neuville, who became moreover running four onerous compound tyres. He completed the tear after bumping his head while making adjustments to his i20 N that required a plaster to be fitted above his shimmering seek for.
“I became engaged on the automobile sooner than and I hit my head,” said Sordo.
“I became taking into consideration in case I maintain to alternate the wheel all the contrivance via the stage, I couldn’t build the jack in. I became playing a puny bit bit and [then there was a] bump.”
Neuville conceded that he had opted for more cautious tyre strategy and defined:
“We are on pudgy hards, we took a safer different this morning. I’m searching for to relish the automobile larger than the day gone by, we modified the setup and it is miles great better,” said Neuville.
The crews will tackle three more stages this afternoon sooner than a gargantuan particular stage reach Athens tonight.
