The first stage of the Acropolis Rally ended with three drivers in just four seconds. A three-way duel with Kalle Rovanperä, Ott Tänak and Sébastien Ogier as the protagonists that was quickly broken. And it was not this time because of a failure, a puncture or a breakdown, but because of the display of one of them. Only two sections of Saturday’s stage did it take Kalle Rovanperä to stay alone at the head of the Acropolis Rally and shoot his lead over Ott Tänak over 16 seconds. For its part, Sébastien Ogier is already half a minute behind his teammate.
It is clear that Kalle Rovanperä wants to achieve his second WRC win and wants to celebrate now. At least that is what emerges from his meteoric start of the stage. And it is that as soon as the competition opens, Rovanperä stood out with a brilliant scratch on the SS7. He surpassed the Finn in 5.6 seconds to Ott Tänak with a very fluid driving at the controls of his Toyota Yaris WRC, while Sébastien Ogier gave up 12.8 seconds over his teammate. Behind and within the silver category, Andreas Mikkelsen took advantage of the seventh stage to position himself as the new leader in the WRC2 category.
Kalle’s performance in the SS7 was not on point. In fact, his speed was even higher in the second leg. With the same agile handling, Rovanperä achieved an even more extraordinary scratch on the SS8. In fact, the Toyota driver surpassed Ott Tänak by 7.5 seconds on a special that had practically the same mileage as the previous one. For its part, Sébastien Ogier gave up another 13.9 seconds, falling off not only from the fight for victory, but also from the fight for second place. Lesser evil for Gap, with his head in other matters.
With eight of the fifteen stages already contested, Kalle Rovanperä manages a 16.8sec lead over Estonian Ott Tänak. For his part, Sébastien Ogier is 30.6 seconds behind his teammate, although he is in a really comfortable position. Not needing to fight for the win against the problems of Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville, the Frenchman does not feel much pressure from behind either, as Dani Sordo is 27 seconds behind the WRC leader. Fifth is Adrien Fourmaux and sixth Gus Greensmith, with no news for the good and for the bad. And it is that the role of the M-Sport pilots is being quite discreet.
Andreas Mikkelsen has consolidated his status as the new WRC2 leader in SS8 after beating Marquito Bulacia in the first special of the day. Now, the difference in favor of the Norwegian is 11 seconds within a silver category in which Nikolay Gryazin closes the podium. There have also been changes in WRC3, although Chris Ingram remains at the forefront with a 7.5 second lead over Yohan Rossel. Now the category leader is the main pursuer of the British rider, while Kajetan Kajetanowicz is third, ahead of an Emil Lindholm who has come to be second after the SS7.
Classification after SS8 of the 65th Acropolis Rally
The Acropolis Rally continues this Saturday (10: 52h) with the dispute of the last four sections of the second stage of the event. Drivers and co-drivers will race 83.50 kilometers against the clock.
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