World Champion Ogier sets fastest time on the EKO Acropolis Super Special Stage

Although the opening special stage bears the same name as previous events, the format of this year’s EKO SSS is entirely new. The special stage took place as a head-to-head super special stage in the southern suburbs of Athens.

With this set-up, the Rally1 drivers faced each other head-to-head, with Ogier going up against Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) in a direct duel.

Sebastien Ogier fuhr Bestzeit auf der Akropolis-Superspezialprüfung

Foto: Toyota

Ogier was faster than Neuville and set the fastest time overall on the 1.56-kilometre stage. The Frenchman clocked a time of 1:38.2 minutes, one second faster than his team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, who finished second.

Former world champion Neuville was 1.1 seconds off the fastest time, whilst the Toyota drivers Sami Pajari and Oliver Solberg both lost 1.2 seconds to the leader in the next two positions.

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“Of course, it’s only really getting started tomorrow,” said Ogier, commenting on his lead. For the nine-time World Champion, it is a great pleasure to be back competing in Greece.

“It’s such a historic rally. We know what a huge challenge lies ahead of us, but that’s always the case for us. Luck will play a big part in the result, but we feel ready.”

Neuville, who set the fastest time in Thursday morning’s shakedown and will start the special stages in seventh place on Friday, said: “It’s great to be competing in another gravel rally and to have a good feel for the car. However, we shouldn’t be too optimistic, as it’s a long rally and a lot can happen. We’ll just try to enjoy it and drive at our own pace.”

Toyota-Youngster Sami Pajari im Shakedown-Sandkasten

Foto: Red Bull

Meanwhile, Sami Pajari has his sights set on his first World Rally Championship round victory this weekend: “Today was a long day for such a short distance covered. But it’s always worth it when you see the spectators cheering so enthusiastically. We have to give it our all and hopefully we’ll be lucky enough to win the rally.”

The young Toyota driver came out on top in a head-to-head battle against Martiņs Sesks. The Latvian set the 13th-fastest time ahead of his M-Sport Ford team-mate Josh McErlean, who was up against Adrien Fourmaux.

Schnellster WRC2-Pilot: Yohan Rossel im Lancia

Foto: Red Bull

Fourmaux is in seventh place, one place behind the World Championship-leading Toyota driver Elfyn Evans, who lost his head-to-head battle against Katsuta.

Hyundai driver Dani Sordo (+2.5 seconds), Ford driver Jon Armstrong (+2.8 seconds) and the fastest WRC2 driver, Yohan Rossel (Lancia), rounded off the top 10 after the first day. Armstrong went head-to-head with Solberg, whilst Sordo drove side-by-side with the Rally2 Toyota of his Spanish compatriot Alejandro Cachon.