Neuville wins, drama surrounding Ogier

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai; 1st) took his second win of the season with victory at the 2024 Acropolis Rally and thus took an important step towards the world championship title. He won the Greece Rally ahead of Dani Sordo (Hyundai; 2nd) and Ott Tänak (Hyundai; 3rd).

The biggest story, however, is Sebastien Ogier (Toyota), who was on his way to a secure second place and victory on “Super Sunday”. But the Frenchman copied his mishap from the 2015 Rally Spain and threw everything in the bin on the Power Stage.

It was a huge stroke of luck for the Frenchman, whose chances of winning the World Championship suffered a major setback, that he was able to drag his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 to the finish line, so that he at least took home the 13 points for third place on Saturday. But Neuville scored 24 points and thus further extended his lead in the World Championship.

Toyota debacle on Friday

The 2024 Acropolis Rally will be remembered for a long time by participants in the World Rally Championship (WRC) as the toughest and most brutal rally in a long time. Although there were only 15 special stages to complete, they were tough and in places were reminiscent of old-school World Championship races, where the main goal was to keep the car in one piece.

Weeks of heat and dryness made it impossible to prepare the course properly, with stones lying everywhere. Ogier even admitted that he had stopped several times during the inspection but still couldn't find a reasonable line because the stones were just everywhere. Heavy rain then set in during the night on Sunday, making the start of the final day even more difficult.

Things were already heating up on Friday. Title candidate Elfyn Evans (Toyota) was eliminated from the circle of contenders for victory on the first special stage. A puncture was only the beginning of his problems, however, as his turbocharger failed on the same stage and he had to complete two full stages with greatly reduced power.

Teammate Ogier took over, only to run into the same problem in the afternoon. Without any power, the Frenchman lost more than two minutes on one and a half stages and Toyota Gazoo Racing were left scratching their heads on Friday evening as a general problem with the car could not be ruled out.

But either that wasn't the case or Toyota was able to get the problem under control, because the Yaris Rally1 didn't have any more turbo problems as the rally progressed. Instead, Evans created a problem for himself when he slowly rolled the Yaris onto its roof in a hairpin bend on the last long stage on Saturday and had to give up.

He competed again on Sunday and still managed to score eight points, but that is little consolation given Neuville's triumph.

The third Toyota driver, Takamoto Katsuta, had to give up on the third stage with a broken wheel, completing a disastrous Friday for the Japanese. He started again on Saturday and finished the rally, but a tire went flat on the Power Stage, meaning he only took home two “Super Sunday” points.

Hyundai loses triple lead and gets it back

After the Toyota chaos on Friday, three Hyundai i20 N Rally1s were in the lead, but it was not to stay that way. Ott Tänak was able to enjoy his lead for a full five and a half kilometers on Saturday before suffering the first of two punctures on the same special stage.

Dani Sordo (Hyundai) is in the lead, but his glory only lasted until Saturday afternoon. First he hit his head when changing tires and needed a plaster. But things got even worse after that, as bad luck with the tires also came back to haunt the experienced Spaniard.

The tire came completely off the rim and destroyed large parts of the bodywork. A blessing in disguise for Sordo: There was a service immediately after the test, so the time loss was only about a minute. He still finished second on Saturday, and on Sunday he drove carefully to secure the manufacturer points.

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) was in the lead and had the fewest problems of all six factory drivers. His i20 N was only running on three cylinders at times on Friday morning, which dropped him to fourth place, but after all three drivers in front of him had problems, the Belgian remained alone at the top. He secured victory with three best special stage times.

Ogier would have been second, but he wanted too much. Knowing that he would need the full load of the Sunday ranking plus the Power Stage best time to score at least 25 points, he really turned it up on Sunday. After two special stage best times, he was already 13 seconds ahead of Tänak in the Sunday ranking, but that was just rubbish after his rollover on the Power Stage.

The Estonian also dared to attack the Super Sunday points. A small engine problem cost power and thwarted an attack on Ogier until the latter got out of the way. Tänak won the Sunday classification and came second on the Power Stage. He thus collected 26 points and is the match winner of the rally, but is still 29 points behind Neuville in the World Championship.

Set with X for M-Sport

The M-Sport team with its Ford Puma Rally1 could have benefited from the numerous incidents at the front, but brought the problems upon themselves. Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport-Ford) completed the steering on the fourth special stage. He had all the spare parts with him, but was unable to loosen the bolts to remove the wheel carrier – he gave up, but at least he won the Power Stage on Sunday.

Gregoire Munster (M-Sport-Ford) struggled with gearbox problems, a handbrake that wasn't working properly and two punctures on the last stage of the day on Friday. He was still in a more promising position, but then slid into a ditch on Saturday and still lost half an hour. Damage to the roll bar was discovered on the night of Sunday, so he had to return home early.

The last Rally1 driver in the field, Jourdan Serderidis, got through his home rally without any problems. However, the 60-year-old gentleman driver was already annoyed on Friday that he had approached the matter a little too cautiously. His pace was on par with the fastest Rally3 drivers.

Sami Pajari (Toyota) won the WRC2 classification with a sensational fourth place, followed by Robert Virves (Skoda; 5th) and Yohan Rossel (Citroen; 6th). The German Armin Kremer (Skoda; 13th) came in tenth in the WRC2 classification.

The next round of the World Rally Championship is the Rally Chile from 26 to 29 September.