The BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team crew of Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen today won the Acropolis Rally of Greece, their first victory of the season and Ford’s 70th win in the WRC. Reigning Junior World Rally Champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia claimed second, their best WRC result to date, and Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila finished third.
In the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers, Loeb still leads but Hirvonen has closed the gap to seven points after the Frenchman crashed and failed to score. Dani Sordo remains third but Jari-Matti Latvala has climbed to fourth. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, BP Ford claimed maximum points, being that Ogier was not nominated to score for the Citroën Junior Team. Citroën Total still leads by 15 points, but Ford’s haul of maximum points in Italy and Greece sees them back on track to fight for the title.
Today’s route was scheduled to take in five stages and 95.26 competitive kilometres and included two runs over the longest stage of the rally. However, the penultimate stage was cancelled for safety reasons. Hirvonen’s overnight advantage meant he could ease the pace and cruise safely to the finish, such has been the high rate of attrition. Both Ogier and Latvala followed suit.
Evgeny Novikov, fourth overnight, hit problems in the first stage and dropped to seventh with engine problems. With two further stages to run before service, the Russian lost yet more time and potentially his best WRC result evaporated into 16th position. As a consequence, Federico Villagra claimed fourth and Conrad Rautenbach fifth. Khalid Al Qassimi climbed from seventh to sixth and the final two point-scoring positions were claimed by Mads Östberg and local hero, Lambros Athanassoulas.
The eighth round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews to new territory. Rally Poland, making its debut in the series, runs from 25-28 June.
Acropolis Rally of Greece – Final Results (subject to final scrutineering and routine fuel analysis)
1. Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen
2. Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia
3. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila
4. Federico Villagra/Jose Diaz
5. Conrad Rautenbach/Daniel Barritt
6. Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr
7. Mads Östberg/Jonas Andersson
8. Lambros Athanassoulas/Nikolaos Zakheos |
Ford Focus RS WRC
Citroën C4 WRC
Ford Focus RS WRC
Ford Focus RS WRC
Citroën C4 WRC
Ford Focus RS WRC
Subaru Impreza WRC
Škoda Fabia S2000 |
4 hr 09 min 42.5sec
4 hr 10 min 55.4sec
4 hr 11 min 27.5sec
4 hr 13 min 30.8sec
4 hr 13 min 42.3sec
4 hr 16 min 46.8sec
4 hr 22 min 07.4sec
4 hr 22 min 30.1sec |
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 7 of 12 rounds)
Sébastien Loeb (F)
Mikko Hirvonen (FIN)
Dani Sordo (E)
Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN)
Henning Solberg (N)
Petter Solberg (N)
Matthew Wilson (GB)
Federico Villagra (RA)
Sébastien Ogier (F)
Conrad Rautenbach (ZW)
Mads Østberg (N)
Khalid Al Qassimi (UAE)
Evgeny Novikov (RUS)
Chris Atkinson (AUS)
Urmo Aava (EE)
Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)
Lambros Athanassoulas (GR) |
55 points
48 points
31 points
25 points
21 points
20 points
15 points
14 points
13 points
7 points
7 points
6 points
4 points
4 points
1 point
1 point
1 point |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 7 of 12 rounds)
Citroën Total World Rally Team
BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team
Citroën Junior Team
Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team |
94 points
79 points
49 points
24 points
18 points |