Acropolis Rally - 2nd Day - 2nd Loop: Neuville remains out in front, Armstrong retires from 3rd after his stage win

At the end of Friday afternoon, Thierry Neuville managed his lead at Acropolis Rally with Sebastien Ogier and Adrien Fourmaux following him.

Thierry Neuville is still leading Acropolis Rally after the three afternoon stages on Friday and set the fastest time in Stage 6. However, the Belgian managed his lead in Stage 7 as he was slower compared to Sebastien Ogier and Adrien Fourmaux.

Sebastien Ogier remains second overall and is 9,7 seconds behind the first Neuville while he is still the best nominated driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT.

Adrien Fourmaux moved up to third overall at the end of Stage 6 after Jon Armstrong's retirement and does the 1-3 for Hyundai Motorsport. Moreover, he was the fastest driver in Stage 7 and is 32,7 seconds behind the second Ogier.

Josh McErlean sits in fourth position overall and is highest-placed driver of M-Sport Ford while he set the fourth-fastest time in Stage 5 resulting in being just 5,2 seconds behind Fourmaux after SS5.

Martins Sesks follows his teammate for 6,8 seconds while their gap was at 3,6 seconds after SS6 in favor of McErlean.

Takamoto Katsuta completes the second day of Acropolis Rally at sixth position and will chase the M-Sport Ford duo tomorrow as his gap from the fifth Sesks is at 16,3 seconds.

Elfyn Evans is seventh overall and had to clean two stages on Friday afternoon as this year's Acropolis Rally itinerary included only one repeated stage today.

Dani Sordo and Sami Pajari gained some positions back and are eighth and tenth overall respectively.

Pajari lost eight places in Stage 5 as he stopped to change a rear left puncture, but he fought back in Stage 6 and 7.

Jon Armstrong took his first ever stage win in World Rally Championship by setting the fastest time at Stage 5 of Acropolis Rally. Bad luck stroke him in Stage 6 as he was forced to stop in order to change a front right puncture. The problems continued as he had a power loss, stalled in a hairpin and got another puncture at front left. Eventually, the Irishman lost more than four minutes there, but he had to retire due to a broken turbo on the road section before the start of Stage 7. He was third overall after SS5 for a first time in his WRC career and was the best driver for M-Sport Ford until that moment.

Oliver Solberg moved up to ninth position overall after Stage 6 following a puncture in Stage 2 and was able to overtake many Rally2 crews on the classification. However, the Swede driver had to retire in Stage 7 as he went off road 6,5Km into SS7 and his Yaris was stuck on a bank.

Watch below the stage times:

Watch below the overall classification after Stage 7:

Photo Credits: Hyundai