And extends championship lead - Sunday report
Thierry Neuville moved a step closer to claiming his first FIA World Rally Championship title after winning a gruelling 2024 edition of EKO Acropolis Rally Greece.
The Belgian driver conquered the carnage-filled three-day fixture in Lamia to head-up a Hyundai Motorsport 1-2-3 finish ahead of i20 N colleagues Dani Sordo and Ott Tänak, with Neuville’s main title rival Sébastien Ogier suffering a dramatic roll on the Wolf Power Stage while on course to finish second overall.
Ogier was able to push his Toyota GR Yaris back onto its wheels and finish the rally, crucially securing the 15 points scored on Saturday night, but plummeted down the overall rally standings after dropping more than 20 minutes.
The Frenchman had initially led early in the rally, but slipped behind when his car was crippled by a turbocharger failure on Friday afternoon. Tänak and Dani Sordo also felt the wrath of the Acropolis, both suffering tyre damage on Saturday that dashed their own victory hopes and catapulted Neuville into the lead.
Even Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe were not immune to the rally’s brutality. A misfiring engine plagued their Hyundai i20 N on the opening morning, but the pair managed to regroup and applied a sensible strategy, carefully balancing risk and reward to avoid further calamities on the treacherous tracks.
The result stretched Neuville’s lead in the drivers’ standings to 34 points over Tänak as Ogier fell to third, with 90 points still available from the remaining three rounds. In the manufacturers' championship, Hyundai extended its advantage over Toyota to 35 points.
With Ogier in trouble, Tänak collected 11 of a possible 12 points from Super Sunday. The Estonian also claimed his 50th WRC podium and now heads Ogier by four points in the drivers’ series.
Elfyn Evans' title aspirations took a major hit when he rolled his Toyota late on Saturday, while M-Sport Ford duo Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster were also forced to rejoin under restart rules following their own incidents.
Pajari prevails on countback for Acropolis WRC2 victory
The Acropolis proved so relentless that WRC2 drivers filled the remaining top 10 spots. Sami Pajari, driving a Toyota Yaris GR Rally2, did not only clinched victory in the WRC2 category in the narrowest of circumstances but also secured fourth place overall in his Rally2-spec Toyota, alongside navigator Enni Mälkönen. Pajari narrowly edged out Robert Virves (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2), with both finishing level on time, but Pajari’s quicker SS1 time gave him the win on countback.
DG Competition's Citroën C3 driver Yohan Rossel, Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Škoda Fabia RS), Fau Zaldivar (Škoda Fabia RS), Josh McErlean (Škoda Fabia RS) and Roberto Daprà (Škoda Fabia Evo) rounded out the top 10, benefiting from the misfortunes of the top-tier drivers.
Germany’s Armin Kremer, navigated by daughter Ella, celebrated winning the WRC Masters Cup, his success enough to secure the series title after claiming five victories from five starts in a Škoda Fabia RS.
The WRC now heads to South America for round 11 at Rally Chile Bio Bío, based in Concepción from 26 – 29 September.
