The afternoon lap of the second leg of the Acropolis Rally opened with a Hyundai in front of everyone. Ott Tanak won Special Stage 10, the 12.90-kilometer Loutraki, just a few seconds ahead of both Sébastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville.
For the Estonian, it was a sort of relief after having to manage the only 4 tyres left following the double puncture suffered in this morning’s PS7, the first test of the stage.
But all eyes, as is normal at this time, are on the fight between Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo and Sébastien Ogier.
Toyota’s Frenchman set the second fastest time in qualifying, 2.4 seconds behind the Estonian, but Neuville was just 2 tenths of a second worse, thus maintaining his considerable advantage over his main rival for the title in the overall standings of the Greek rally.
For his part, Ogier tried to push hard to recover seconds on Dani Sordo. The Spaniard, after delaminating a tire in the last test of the morning, also has half of the right side of the car completely missing. Yet he managed to lose only 4″9 from Ogier and still have 45 seconds on Ogier, defending his second place in the general classification well.
Tanak, fourth and unable to recover positions, is left with the satisfaction of the stage victory.
In WRC2 Sami Pajari continues to keep Robert Virves, his main rival for the class win, at bay. The Finn has a 19.1″ lead between the two. Yohan Rossel continues to push hard to show everyone that he is the fastest man behind the wheel of a Rally2 this weekend, but yesterday’s puncture deprived him of a win that he would have fully deserved for the domination he had shown in the first 5 stages.
#WRC #Acropolis #Rally #SS10 #Tanak #wins #Neuville #extends #lead
