Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville has inherited the Acropolis Rally lead after personnel-mate Dani Sordo became the most fresh World Rally Championship Rally1 driver to hit trouble.
Sordo had moved into the lead of the rally on the outlet stage of the day when personnel-mate and overnight leader Ott Tanak suffered two punctures in separate incidents.
He began the afternoon’s phases with a 10.3s attend over Neuville but his time within the lead used to be short-lived as drama struck in stage 9 [Aghii Theodori 1, 25.87km], held in rude warmth.
The most attention-grabbing rear tyre on his i20 N let sprint at some level of the stage after hitting a rock inflicting injury to the rear bodywork of his car, which allowed mud to discontinuance within the midst of the cabin. Sordo pressed on on three tyres and reached the stage pause ceding 51.3s.
The time loss handed Neuville the lead of the rally for the first time this weekend the assign he’s going to stand to procure 18 provisional aspects ought to peaceable the Belgian pause the day within the lead.
Speaking at the stage pause sooner than Sordo suffered this tyre failure, Neuville acknowledged: “My targets are moderately easy, receive by strategy of the day with out an arena, particularly with out a puncture.
“I’m stopping rather with the rear, now not easy cases in there, plenty of loose gravel I am attempting to handbook positive of.
“The second sprint shall be now not easy. There are already plenty of the inviting stones and the rest can happen here within the second sprint. Optimistically, we receive by strategy of, have that runt bit of luck we wish, the entirety feels correct within the car.”
While Neuville claimed the rally lead, the stage used to be received by Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier, who took 5.7s out of the broken-down’s attend.
With the gap to leader Neuville standing at 1m21.5s, Ogier felt the margin to the championship leader used to be too gargantuan to receive well.
“The gaps are too gargantuan! We relieve doing our job as most attention-grabbing as we are able to, we’ll leer,” acknowledged Ogier.
”With out carrier in Greece it is miles a gargantuan mission, to this level we’re tickled and we are able to strive to supply the day.”
Tanak successfully managed to sprint by strategy of what he declared “the roughest” take a look at of the rally to this level, to withhold fourth overall, but gradual there used to be drama for fifth-placed Gregor Munster.
The M-Sport-Ford driver went off the boulevard along with his Puma becoming stuck in a ditch at the aspect of the boulevard. Munster’s exit handed fifth to WRC2 class leader Sami Pajari sooner than Robert Virves.
The crews will address two more phases this afternoon sooner than a gargantuan particular stage attain Athens tonight.
