WRC | Acropolis Rally, PS6: Ogier, turbo KO. Now Hyundai dominates

Hyundai closes the first stage of the Acropolis Rally in an unexpected way and, perhaps, for this reason even sweeter. A hat-trick, 1-2-3 in the Special Stage 6, the 23.37 km Tarzan 2, sublimated by the same result also obtained in the provisional general classification of the Greek event.

Thierry Neuville won today’s final test with a time of 16’56″9, just 7 tenths ahead of Dani Sordo and 1″4 ahead of his second teammate, event leader Ott Tanak, in an afternoon that could prove decisive in the fight for the Constructors’ world title and, perhaps, the Drivers’ title as well.

The overall classification is not so much dominated by the Hyundai hat-trick, but by the fact that it is nothing more than the consequence of the problem that clearly and seriously affected the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 of Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais.

The 8-time world champion had already noticed a problem with his car in the last sector of PS5. For this reason, he had tried to stop during the transfer to understand where the problem was coming from and try to fix it. But his attempts were in vain.

The turbo on Ogier’s car failed. The same problem had occurred during the morning for teammate Elfyn Evans’ Toyota GR Yaris. Ogier therefore faced the test without the help of a key component of the Rally1 car’s propulsion system, losing over 2 minutes and 22 seconds to the best.

This has caused Ogier to slip from second to fourth in the overall standings of the Greek event. The podium is now 1’41″2 away with 9 special stages to go at the end of Acropolis 2024.

For Hyundai, this is a major move, as it now literally commands the race, the entire podium and has the opportunity to implement team strategies to help Neuville in the fight for the world title against Ogier. But the Greek rally is one of the most treacherous of the season, so the Korean team’s top brass will have to manage the current result very well in a series of tests that promise to be well beyond treacherous.

It didn’t go well for Gregoire Munster either, who stopped during the test to change a damaged tire during the special. The Dutchman from M-Sport also lost several dozen seconds, slipping to seventh place in the general classification.

Robert Virves (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) and Sami Pajari (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) took advantage of the numerous retirements and troubles in the Rally1, finishing fifth and sixth respectively in the overall standings and first and second in the WRC2 standings.

The twist, in fact, also came in the cadet category, with the dominator Yohan Rossel slowed down by a puncture in PS6 that made him lose a substantial leadership, which reached over 50 seconds after PS5. In the same test, Gus Greensmith also had to stop, who, after hitting a cow found on the course (the animal then ran away without problems), thus lost the possibility of gaining positions and aiming for the podium and victory.

The first stage of the Acropolis Rally ends here. The Greek event will resume tomorrow morning with Special Stage 7, the 28.67-kilometer Rengini. The first car will enter the test at 7:16 Italian time.

WRC 2024 – Acropolis Rally – Standings after SS6