Thierry Neuville is 2.8s to the good in his bid for back-to-back Acropolis Rally victories after he made it through Friday’s first full leg leading eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier.
With baking sunshine and rapidly drying roads replacing the rain and mud that had caused significant disruption in the build-up to the event, Hyundai’s team leader Neuville beat Ogier through the day’s opening Loutraki test by 3.4s.
After going quickest on Thursday evening’s superspecial in Athens, Kalle Rovanpera found the rough nature of Friday’s second test, Pissia, to his liking.
Despite a big scare when his Yaris landed nose-first following a compression, the world champion was quickest through by 3.1s to narrow Neuville’s lead to 2.0s ahead of the tyre fitting zone in Loutraki.
Ogier made it three stage winners out of three with the quickest time on the repeat of the day-opening Loutraki test as Rovanpera, opening the road as the championship leader, had to negotiate the alternative lines created by the two-wheel-drive cars running further back.
He was 6.0s slower than Ogier as a result and slipped behind the Frenchman in the overall rankings with Neuville now leading Ogier by 2.4s.
As the rally made its way north towards its hub in Lamia, the damp sections visible on stage five, Livadia, meant Neuville’s decision to fit four soft-compound Pirellis to his factory i20 proved inspired.
He was 5.0s quicker than Ogier, who went for a combination of softs and hards, and was able to extend his advantage out front to 7.4s.
But Neuville’s progress would be slowed through the day-closing 28.2 kilometres of Elatia to the extent his leading margin was cut to 2.8s.
“That last stage was stressful,” the Belgian said at the overnight halt in Lamia.
“From the very start I could hear a noise coming from the rear differential. I was having a problem with the transmission on previous stages but just on the start line until Elatia.
“I couldn’t go full throttle for the first three gears, which was costing me a lot of time. I was a bit worried we wouldn’t make it to the end; thankfully we did.”
After losing time cleaning a path through the loose gravel on Friday’s closing two stages, Rovanpera completed leg one in third place, 25.5s behind Neuville with team-mate Elfyn Evans 5.5s further back in fourth.
Having fixed a water leak on his i20, Esapekka Lappi is fifth, 1.1s behind Evans with Takamoto Katsuta demoting Dani Sordo to sixth on SS6 after the Spaniard stalled his Hyundai.
Ott Tanak was 8.3s off the lead following SS3 although quick to complain about his troublesome Ford Puma, reporting “a massive fight in the car, no way it’s driving like it should”.
But while his rivals headed off for the Loutraki repeat, Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja were stranded in the town as they worked to fix a faulty water pump.
They eventually left the tyre fitting zone 22 minutes behind schedule and picked up 3m40s in road penalties, dropping them out of contention once again but also down the running order.
With his M-Sport entry finally working as it should, Tanak made the most of his lower road position to go fastest on stages five and six, not that it really mattered given his earlier time loss.
Tanak might be 3m34.5s off the lead ahead of Saturday’s six-stage route, but at least he’s still running, which isn’t the case for his team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet, who retired prior to SS2 with a technical issue of his own.
M-Sport has confirmed the French youngster won’t restart on Saturday to compound another tough event for the British team.
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