OGIER KEEPS TOYOTA IN ACROPOLIS RALLY FIGHT AFTER TOUGH OPENING DAY

TOYOTA GAZOO RACING ENDS FRIDAY WITH OGIER SECOND AS ROAD POSITION HAMPERS TEAMMATES

Sébastien Ogier kept TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team firmly in contention after Friday's demanding opening full day of Acropolis Rally Greece, ending the leg in second place, just 9.7 seconds behind rally leader Thierry Neuville.

Following Thursday night's super special stage in Athens, competitors crossed the Gulf of Corinth before tackling six gravel stages covering 129.22 competitive kilometres. The route featured only a remote service in Livadia during the longest day of the rally.

https://youtu.be/m6A8o76bfvE

Toyota's five GR YARIS Rally1 crews faced a difficult challenge as they started first through fifth on the road based on their championship positions, forcing them to sweep loose gravel for the drivers behind.

Ogier, running fifth on the road, made the most of his starting position. The Frenchman claimed victory on SS4 and remained in contention throughout the day, finishing Friday within 10 seconds of the overall lead.

The remaining Toyota drivers encountered a more difficult day. Takamoto Katsuta and Elfyn Evans completed Friday in sixth and seventh overall after facing the harshest road-cleaning conditions.

Oliver Solberg lost more than one minute in the opening stage after suffering a loss of tyre pressure. His rally became even more complicated on the final stage when he ran wide and became stuck on a bank, forcing his retirement for the day. The team expects him to restart on Saturday as the car sustained only minor damage.

Sami Pajari briefly climbed as high as fourth overall during the morning before a technical issue on SS4 and a wheel and tyre change on SS5 cost valuable time. He ended the day in 10th position.

In WRC2, TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto showed competitive speed with several top-six stage times but lost significant time after stopping twice to change tyres, leaving him 13th in class. Alejandro Cachón completed the day third in WRC2 in his GR Yaris Rally2.

Quote

"Sébastien Ogier ended Friday just 9.7 seconds behind the rally leader after overcoming the challenges of running fifth on the road."

Key Points

• Sébastien Ogier finished Friday second overall at Acropolis Rally Greece.

• Ogier is 9.7 seconds behind rally leader Thierry Neuville.

• Toyota drivers faced difficult road-cleaning conditions throughout the day.

• Ogier claimed a stage victory on SS4.

• Oliver Solberg retired after becoming stuck on the final stage but is expected to restart.

• Sami Pajari lost time due to a technical issue and a wheel change.

• Takamoto Katsuta and Elfyn Evans ended the day sixth and seventh overall.

• Alejandro Cachón finished Friday third in the WRC2 category.

• Yuki Yamamoto ended the day 13th in WRC2 after two tyre changes.

Quotes:

Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)

“Today was probably just as difficult for us as we had expected beforehand. Seb has been doing well, making the most of the slightly better position he had compared to his team-mates, and he’s in a good position looking ahead to the rest of the rally. Elfyn knows how to drive as the first car on the road and he made no mistakes, so it just shows how extreme the cleaning effect was today. Taka was also doing good times from second on the road and Sami was going well too until he lost some time with some issues. The mistake from Oliver is unfortunate; these things can happen when you’re trying to drive more carefully, so we need to help him find the right balance.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)

“We knew that today was going to be tough in our position opening the road but it turned out to be even tougher than we had expected. The cleaning effect on some of the stages today was really extreme. It’s very dry this year and we’ve started the rally with some rockier and more abrasive stages compared to last year, and the impact of that for us has been clear. We just have to keep trying tomorrow, which I’m sure will be another tough day to challenge everyone.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)

“It was clear that today would be difficult as a team with the amount of loose gravel on the road. At least I had the best start position within the team and I tried to use that as much as I could. In some sections we still saw the guys starting behind us could be quite a bit quicker, but overall I think we can be happy. We had a good rhythm and stayed out of trouble on stages that were very abrasive for the tyres. So far it’s going to plan, but we need to keep it going the same way.”

Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)

“Today has been tougher than expected. To have the puncture in the first stage this morning was unfortunate, and after that we were just trying to stay out of trouble really. Then in the last stage of the day I got too wide in a right-hander and just got beached on the edge of the road, and when I tried to reverse I damaged the gearbox and ended up being stuck. It’s very frustrating, especially as we had not been pushing after what happened earlier. It’s been a tough run lately and we need to understand it and improve and keep our heads up.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)

“It’s been quite a clean day overall for us. We tried our best to manage the tyres, and unfortunately we did pick up some damage a couple of times, but we know that this can happen in this kind of very extreme conditions. To be P6 overall tonight is quite good considering that we were second on the road. Of course, it could be better, but it could also be worse. Realistically I think we can still aim to catch the two cars in front of us tomorrow and otherwise try to stay away from problems, because anything can still happen in a rough rally like this.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)

“We had some nice stages during the morning loop and I think that our pace was quite decent considering our road position. I felt that we were doing quite an OK job while trying to avoid any issues, but unfortunately the issues still came our way and in total we lost around two minutes. It means we are realistically out of the fight for the win, but there’s still two long days to go. Anything can happen and we just need to keep going.”

End of day one (Thursday):

1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 1h26m48.2s

2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +9.7s

3 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +42.4s

4 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m10.1s

5 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m16.9s

6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m33.2s

7 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m08.4s

8 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m49.5s

9 Andreas Mikkelsen/Jørn Listerud (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3m10.6s

10 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +3m13.1s

29 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +12m36.6s

(Results as of 20:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?

Saturday takes place on the Peloponnesian peninsula to the west of Loutraki. An initial loop of four stages features two that are brand-new and two that were last driven in 2013. Two of these tests will then be repeated following afternoon service in Loutraki, forming a total of 108.69 competitive kilometres.