ATHENS (Reuters) – Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville led Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier by a mere 2.8 seconds after the first full day of Greece’s Acropolis Rally on Friday.
The Belgian, last year’s winner, won just one of the day’s five stages on rough gravel roads and in drying conditions after Storm Daniel dumped devastating rain on the country in recent days.
Thursday’s shakedown was cancelled for safety reasons due to the weather but the ceremonial start near the Acropolis in Athens went ahead with championship leader Harri Rovanpera then setting the early pace for Toyota.
Neuville took the lead in better weather on Friday’s opening stage and was 7.4 seconds clear of Ogier going into the day’s closing 28.3km stage before being slowed by a mechanical problem.
“That last stage was stressful; not only was it a challenging one at 28km but from the very start I could hear a noise coming from the rear differential,” said Neuville, who had earlier experienced transmission problems at the start.
“I couldn’t go full throttle for the first three gears, which was costing me a lot of time. I was a bit worried we wouldn’t make it to the end; thankfully we did.”
Eight times world champion Ogier is now competing part-time and was starting his first rally since winning the Kenyan Safari in June.
The rally is based in Lamia, some 200km to the north of Athens.
Rovanpera was 22.7 seconds behind Ogier with championship rival and team mate Elfyn Evans in fourth place and 5.5 seconds further behind.
The Finn leads Evans by 25 points with three rallies remaining after Greece.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ken Ferris)
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