Thierry Neuville efficiently navigated by means of one other brutal day on the Acropolis Rally to steer the World Rally Championship occasion into the ultimate day.
The championship chief survived six tough gravel phases, and not using a service, to steer Hyundai team-mate Dani Sordo by 54.9s, provisionally claiming the utmost 18 Saturday factors.
Sordo took two factors away from Neuville’s title rival Toyota’s Sebastian Ogier, who headed again to the service park in third [+1m19.9s], with 13 factors, having continued his restoration from a turbo situation that price him the lead on Friday night time.
Neuville began the day in third place however inherited the lead, changing into the fourth chief of the rally, after team-mates Ott Tanak and Sordo suffered punctures.
In a single day chief Tanak witnessed his victory hopes vanish after stopping twice on the opening check of the day (stage seven, Rengini, 28.67km, to vary punctured rear and entrance proper tyres.
Shedding greater than 4 minutes pushed the 2019 world champion to fourth, the place he remained on the finish of the afternoon loop, 3m20.5s adrift.
Sordo assumed the rally lead following Tanak’s tyre woes however his time within the lead was short-lived. The Spaniard hit a rock on stage 9 that punctured his proper rear tyre which then delaminated and induced harm to the automobile en path to the stage finish.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Workforce Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Picture by: McKlein / Motorsport Photos
M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster held fifth earlier than working right into a ditch on stage 9, which handed the place to WRC2 class chief Sami Pajari [+5m07.3s], with Robert Virves in sixth [+5m35.1s].
The day’s remaining phases weren’t with out drama as Takamoto Katsuta, coming back from his Friday exit, spun and stalled his GR Yaris in stage 10 (Loutraki, 12.90km).
Tanak got here by means of the technical check plagued by free rocks with the quickest time, 2.4s quicker than Ogier, whereas a cautious Neuville was 0.2s additional again.
Sordo was fourth quickest with a patched-up i20 N due to his mechanics on the noon tyre becoming zone, who tried to forestall mud coming into the automobile by means of the opening attributable to the delaminated tyre. The WRC veteran did nonetheless choose to put on goggles to assist with the visibility.
The second cross by means of the rutted Aghii Theodori (stage 11) supplied a few scares for Tanak and Elfyn Evans on the identical hairpin on a pointy downhill part.
Evans clipped a rut which tipped his GR Yaris right into a gradual roll and was fortunate spectators have been readily available to push the automobile again on to its wheels. The incident was the newest drama for the Welshman, who had climbed from thirtieth to thirteenth after a puncture and turbo failure on Friday.
Evans pulled over to let Ogier by means of earlier than reaching the stage finish having dropped 5m07.1s. Toyota elected to retire the automobile to protect the equipment for Sunday’s phases.
Tanak nearly produced a carbon copy of Evans’ roll however by some means managed to save lots of his i20 N from rolling because it teetered on two wheels. The second seemingly price him a stage win after trailing Ogier by 0.5s on the end.
Neuville caught to his plan to not take any pointless dangers to finish the check 5.5s as his lead over Sordo prolonged to 52.6s.
The Hyundai driver ended the day in type by profitable one of the crucial uncommon spectator tremendous particular phases in WRC historical past that ended the day.
Neuville took the win by 0.4s from Ogier on the 1.97km check that utilised a closed part of a motorway and repair station.
Three phases await the crews on Sunday to conclude the rally.
