Acropolis Rally Greece - 2nd Day: Rovanpera in top after a continuing drama



At the end of second day, Kalle Rovanpera is leading Acropolis Rally Greece with Ott Tanak and Sebastien Ogier following.


Kalle Rovanpera is in first posistion overall after a dramatic day in Greece setting the fastest times on Stages 3 and 4. The Finn driver started second on the road after the end of Stage 3 as his two main rivals [Neuville, Evans] had issues with their cars.


Ott Tanak reclaimed the second position from Ogier at the end of Stage 6 and he reported after Stage 3 that he felt that the dampef of his car was overheating while the engine was stalling in some sections. Also, it must be mentioned that he was the fastest driver in the first and in the last stage of the day.


Sebastien Ogier completes the top three and he set the fastest time in SS5 despite the fact that he was opening the road today.


Dani Sordo is fourth overall and he received a 10-second time penalty as he had a jump start on Stage 3.


Adrien Fourmaux completes the top five and he is currently the leading driver for M-Sport Ford. However, he reported that he was struggling with the set-up of his Fiesta during the Stage 2.


Gus Greensmith follows behind his teammate for seconds and he mentioned that he struggled with the rear of his car on Stage 2. 


Elfyn Evans, Pierre-Louis Loubet and Thierry Neuville are outside the top ten after facing problems with their cars.


Evans has not started the Stage 3 on his scheduled time as his Yaris was stuck in sixth gear in SS3, therefore he lost one minute there. Also, he received a 40-second time peanlty for a late time control check-in. However, the problems did not stop there for him as he reported a tranmission issue at the end of Stage 4 having only the fourth gear available. While he thought that he would have repaired the gearbox issue of his Yaris, this issue still existed, so he was losing time in the next stages. It must be mentioned that the Welsh driver was third overall at the end of Stage 2.


Neuville struggled with the behaviour of his i20 during the Stage 3 while he has been given a 4-minute time penalty, because he was 24-minute late for TC3C. However, he reported after Stage 4 that he had a power steering issues with his car after having left the Tyre Fitting Zone (TC3C), but he managed to glue the broken pipe before Stage 5, so he repaired the issue he had with the power steering. Finaly, he said after Stage 5 that his car's electrical issues remained while he stopped on Stage 6 as he was red flagged by a marshall and to check if Loubet were okay.


Loubet dropped time when he had a puncture on Stage 4, so he stopped to change the wheel. Also, he received a 10-second time penalty as he had a jump start on Stage 3 and he was very cautious on Stage 5 as he had no spare wheel after having had a double puncture. But he stopped on the last stage of the day as his i20 was stuck in a ditch after faing a possible issue with his power steering.


For the tyre choices, the Toyota drivers chose five hard compounds whereas Sordo, Loubet and Tanak chose six hard compounds. Neuville, Fourmaux and Greensmith decided to take four hard compounds and two soft compounds. 


Watch below the stage times:








Watch below the overall classification after SS6:




Photo Credits: Toyota

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