Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville leads the Acropolis Rally in Greece

Adrien Fourmaux finished the first full day of this long-established gravel rally in third place in his Hyundai, 42.4 seconds behind the leader. The two M-Sport Ford drivers, Josh McErlean and Martins Sesks, rounded off the top five.

Genutuung bei Hyundai: Fourmaux und Neuville vorne dabei

Foto: Red Bull

Friday got off to the worst possible start for Monte Carlo winner Solberg, as the Swede suffered a puncture on the day’s opening special stage and lost 1.28.9 minutes.

Determined to avoid further drama, Solberg subsequently eased off the pace on the remaining special stages, as he saw no advantage in continuing to push hard. The likelihood of running into further problems was simply too great for him.

Nevertheless, the day ended prematurely for him on the final special stage, with his GR Yaris Rally1 coming to a halt at the side of the road. Approaching a left-hand bend, he lost the rear end and skidded off the track. It was Solberg’s fourth driving error in the last five rallies to bring the day to a premature end.

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His Toyota team-mate Ogier went into today’s six special stages in the lead following Thursday’s super special stage. However, Fourmaux and Neuville were then able to capitalise on their late starting positions of six and seven respectively and took the lead for Hyundai.

Sebastien Ogier bei den Sandkastenspielen auf Platz zwei

Foto: Red Bull

Neuville was in the lead after SS2, but Fourmaux had set the fastest time. The Frenchman took the lead after SS3, before a puncture in SS4 cost him half a minute.

As a result, Neuville extended his lead over Ogier to 11 seconds, with the world champions of the last two years taking turns setting the fastest times throughout the afternoon.

Ogier made up 1.7 seconds on Neuville in SS 5, but Neuville countered with the fastest time in SS 6, finishing just 0.8 seconds ahead. However, the Belgian was forced to use a soft-compound tyre throughout the entire afternoon loop, which proved to be a disadvantage. Something similar had already happened to his Hyundai team-mate Dani Sordo in Portugal.

“We had a good rhythm all afternoon and can be satisfied with our performance,” said Neuville, reflecting on his day’s work. “I was pushing the car and the tyres to the limit. The tyres were already very worn before the start, so I was a bit worried. But we’re still in the running because we didn’t take any major risks.”

“It’s always nice to be in the lead, but that doesn’t mean anything at the moment,” the Belgian added. “The rally is still a long way from over, and tomorrow will be very tough on the tyres and the car again.”

Ogier said: “It was a good day for us. I think we can be satisfied with that. We’ve managed to more or less stay out of trouble. At the moment, I’m just focusing on myself and want to keep staying out of trouble.”

Pechvogel: Oliver Solberg nach Fahrfehler out

Foto: Red Bull

Fourmaux had initially dropped back to fourth place following his puncture in the morning, but managed to get back into the top three at Josh Armstrong’s expense and also capped off his day with a stage win.

Armstrong claimed his very first stage win at a World Rally Championship round immediately after the remote service on SS5. His joy was short-lived, however, as a puncture and a turbo problem on SS6 cost him four minutes and, with it, third place.

He then retired on the liaison stage as the turbo problem could not be resolved.

As a result, his two M-Sport team-mates each moved up a place, with McErlean managing to keep Seks at a narrow deficit of 6.8 seconds overnight. Fourth place is the best single-day result McErlean has ever achieved in the World Rally Championship.

Josh Armstrong erstmals im M-Sport-Ford mit WP-Bestzeit, dann Turboprobleme

Foto: XPB

“That’s a pretty good starting position for the rest of the rally,” said McErlean. “We tried to secure a good starting position for tomorrow. I think we’ve managed that.”

Takamoto Katsuta is in sixth place overnight, one place ahead of Elfyn Evans, who was the only car ahead of him on the starting grid. Both trail the leader, Neuville, by 1 minute 33.2 seconds and 2 minutes 08.4 seconds respectively.

The drivers behind them all struggled with problems. Spain’s Dani Sordo had to stop in the morning due to a puncture. Sami Pajari did the same in the afternoon.

However, Sordo also had more serious problems. The Spaniard grumbled: “I’m really frustrated. It’s difficult – everything. I’ve forgotten how to write pace notes. I was enjoying the driving and initially thought I was doing well, but in terms of pace, I obviously wasn’t.”

Andreas Mikkelsen leads the WRC2 standings ahead of his Toksport Skoda team-mate Robert Virves. Toyota driver Alejandro Cachon is in third place after Yohan Rossel (Lancia) had to stop on the final special stage to change a tyre.