Jonne Halttunen admits that the Acropolis Rally of 2023 was one of his toughest events of his career considering the conditions and the number of changes that he had to make on his pacenotes.
The recce of Acropolis Rally was affected by the weather on Central Greek region as there were heavy rains and storms resulting in destroying the stage roads. In fact, the recce would last two days (4-5 September), but the organizers gave an extension, therefore the Rally1 crews had to pass throughtout "Karoutes" stage and "Shakedown" stage on Wednesday 6 September to make some final adjustments on their pacenotes. During the rally week, the organizers were publishing many bulletins and communications with the intention of informing the crews about the conditions and the stages. For instance, they announced that the two passes from "Grammeni" stages were shortened by ten kilometers while they cancelled the "Shakedown" stage.
"This has to be one of the toughest events of my career", Halttunen said.
"There were so many changes coming from the organisers because of the conditions.
"I think we had something like 11 bulletins and so many communications, this is a lot more than normal because of how the roads had changed after the rain.
"It was a difficult rally for the drivers, of course, but also for us.
"It’s not so easy when you are getting these changes and the videos coming in, you have to work on them – but at the same time we still have to do the normal job as well.
"The team did a fantastic job and I’m happy for this win".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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