Sébastien Ogier and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team looked on course to secure second position and strong points from Acropolis Rally Greece until final-stage heartbreak.
Ogier was fighting back after losing over two minutes at the end of Friday with a technical issue. On the final morning he stormed into second overall and a good lead of the separate Super Sunday classification with wins in the first two stages of the day.
The subsequent Power Stage offered another opportunity to convert that pace into valuable extra points, but early in the rock-strewn test Ogier would sustain a puncture that led him to run wide in a following corner and roll over.
He and co-driver Vincent Landais were thankfully unharmed and, after a delay while they made some repairs, were able to get their car through the stage and to the final time control in Lamia – at least securing the 13 points they had banked for finishing Saturday in third position.
Sustained hot and dry weather made this one of the roughest and toughest editions of the legendary Acropolis Rally for many years. Elfyn Evans lost significant time with multiple issues during the rally but reached the finish taking points for third in the Super Sunday classification and the Power Stage. Takamoto Katsuta, who stopped with damage on Friday morning, took fifth on Super Sunday and in the Power Stage.
After an impressive Rally1 debut with TGR-WRT at Rally Finland, Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen returned to their WRC2 campaign in Greece in their GR Yaris Rally2 car run by Printsport and claimed their third win of the season in fourth place overall. They sealed the win in a thrilling dead heat with Robert Virves (Škoda) after sustaining a puncture in the final stage, and now close to within three points of the championship lead.
It is the fourth WRC2 win in total for the GR Yaris Rally2 in the last six rallies in what were the most demanding conditions it has faced yet in its debut season.
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, ACROPOLIS RALLY GREECE
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) 3h38m04.2s
2 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m46.8s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +2m57.3s
4 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +7m01.1s
5 Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +7m01.1s
6 Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral (Citroën C3 Rally2) +7m31.9s
7 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m54.0s
8 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +11m27.9s
9 Josh McErlean/James Fulton (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +12m27.2s
10 Roberto Daprà/Luca Guglielmetti (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +13m44.9s
16 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +23m44.5s
18 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +24m45.5s
30 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +41m22.2s
(Results as of 16:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 10:
1 Thierry Neuville 192 points
2 Ott Tänak 158
3 Sébastien Ogier 154
4 Elfyn Evans 140
5 Adrien Fourmaux 130
6 Kalle Rovanperä 86
7 Takamoto Katsuta 80
8 Dani Sordo 44
9 Sami Pajari 34
10 Esapekka Lappi 33
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 10:
1 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 413 points
2 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 388
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 215
