Thierry Neuville stretched his lead over Sebastian Ogier to 4.1 seconds after a high‑stakes showdown on Saturday’s gravel stages at Acropolis Rally Greece.
Saturday’s tension‑filled duel
Neuville launched with a 9.7‑second advantage over Toyota’s Ogier. The first four stages pounded the cars and tyres less than feared, allowing the gap to wobble.
Neuville maintained a 3.7‑second lead before the afternoon phases, but reclaimed momentum when stage 12 was shortened by 4.5 km on Hankook tyre concerns, a decision driven by Ogier. The revision allowed Neuville to gain 7.1 seconds and lift his advantage to 10.1 seconds.
“The car was working amazing,” Neuville tweeted, “super quick and I was really enjoying it.”
Ogier’s decisive comeback
Menalo Mt 2, the final afternoon test, saw Ogier claw back 6.7 seconds, trimming the gap to 4.1 seconds heading into Sunday’s closing stages.
“I could do nothing about Neuville’s pace,” Ogier acknowledged after the effort.
Punctures upend the midfield
Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, initially third, fell to sixth after a front‑right puncture on stage 12, costing the driver over two minutes for a wheel change. The collapse handed third to Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, who moved from sixth to third as other competitors also suffered tyre failures.
Elfyn Evans and Dani Sordo could not recover from their punctures and both dropped from podium contention. M‑Sport’s Josh McErlean slid to seventh while the Ford Puma endured a 3 minute, 10 second penalty, trailing to 11th.
Shifts in other front‑court placements
Sami Pajari leapt from ninth to sixth, capitalising on the tyre misfortunes of Evans and Sordo.
WRC2 leader Andreas Mikkelsen held his top position, a 13.9‑second margin over Robert Virves.
Oliver Solberg, after a severe crash on Friday, finished the rally outside the points‑scoring positions.
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