- A power issue for Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier handed Hyundai’s Ott Tanak the Acropolis Rally advantage as drama struck four of the five World Rally Championship title contenders.
Tanak was the only championship challenger to avoid problems to end an attritional Friday on Greece’s rough gravel roads with a 21.8s lead over team-mate Dani Sordo.
Ogier had led the rally by 5.9s at the midday service and won three of the day’s six stages, but a turbo issue with his Toyota GR Yaris ahead of the final test dropped the Frenchman to fourth [+2m26.4s].
Championship leader and road opener Thierry Neuville completed a 1-2-3 for Hyundai, recovering to third [+45.2s] after his i20 N was reduced to three cylinders across the morning.
M-Sport-Ford’s Gregoire Munster appeared to be on course to finish the day in fourth before a double puncture in stage six dropped him to seventh [+4m08.4s], behind leading WRC2 runners Robert Virves and Sami Pajari.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta challenged for the rally lead on Friday morning after winning stage two before an impact on stage three resulted in the Japanese losing a wheel and retiring from the day.
The incident added to a difficult day for Toyota after title contender Elfyn Evans suffered a puncture on the opening stage and a turbo issue. The Welshman completed the afternoon with a repaired GR Yaris but ended the loop outside the points-paying positions, 9m55 adrift.
The Acropolis Rally’s infamous rocky roads generated headlines at the start of Friday afternoon when Adrien Fourmaux endured a costly run-in with a rock.
The M-Sport-Ford driver had navigated through Friday morning’s rough gravel stages to trail rally leader Ogier by 5.9s.
Fourmaux’s morning loop times were even more impressive considering he lost time to the hanging dust from Elfyn Evans’ wounded Toyota GR Yaris, and completed the trio of stages without hybrid power.
However, at the start of stage four, the second pass through Ano Pavliani, the Frenchman, sitting fifth in the championship standings, clipped a rock and broke the steering on his Ford Puma.
Ogier was able to continue the speed that put him into a 5.9s lead at midday service after setting the pace on stage four by 1.9s from Tanak, who moved into second following Fourmaux’s demise.
Hyundai’s Sordo, running with a hybrid issue, inherited third overall from Neuville, now driving a repaired i20 N Rally1 that had dropped to three cylinders across the morning loop. M-Sport-Ford’s Gregoire Munster climbed to fifth while demonstrating pace to clock the fourth-fastest time on the stage.
The battle at the front took another twist in stage five [Dafni, 21.67km] when Ogier suffered a mysterious issue with his GR Yaris. The rally leader been running strongly before, dropping time in the final split of the 21.67km Dafni test and ceding 16.7s to Tanak
Ogier reported that he needed to “check something” on his car at the stage end, but the time loss handed Tanak the rally lead, despite the Estonian feeling car balance tweaks had gone in the wrong direction.
Tanak claimed the stage by 4.5s from Sordo with Munster third, the Luxembourger clearly enjoying the confidence found behind the wheel of his Puma following changes at midday service.
In contrasting circumstances, Neuville was fighting his i20 N in stage five while Evans was finding his feet in his GR Yaris to post a time 10.1s slower than Tanak.
Ogier stopped twice on the road section to attempt a repair on a suspected turbo-rated issue but was unable to find a solution. That meant the Frenchman was forced to complete stage six [Tarzan] in road mode, which cost him more than two minutes.
“There was not much we could do: the turbo is broken. That is motorsport sometimes,” said Ogier.
Evans also shipped a further 45.8s in the final stage managing a small issue. The drama continued as Munster suffered a front puncture and rear tyre delamination in two separate incidents.
Neuville took the final stage win of the day to move to third overall behind team-mates Tanak and Sordo.
Six stages totalling 135.02 competitive kilometres await the crews on Saturday.
