With a total of 695.64 km of simple and special routes, with no intermediate service, the second purely competitive day of the EKO Rally Acropolis was like a normal Marathon for the crews, who, in addition to the tough special routes, had to deal with the high temperatures and the unpredictability that lurking at every turn of the six special routes.
So, the management of demanding conditions should perhaps be done in terms of marathon runners, who according to the famous coach Mike Fanelli must “run first with their mind, second with their personality and lastly with their heart ».
Thierry Neuville proved that if he wasn’t among the elite WRC drivers, he could be a distinguished long-distance racer! He drove prudently, avoiding unnecessary risk, without deviating for a moment from his plan, he kept his cool in the verbal challenges of Sebastien Ogier, who repeatedly tried to “spoil” his mind and concentration, and he was fully justified: he now figures at the top of the overall ranking.
On the contrary, Ott Tanak,-first at the end of yesterday, with two punctures in the first special stage of the day, lost a lot of time and had to continue cautiously, without reserve, until the tire fitting zone in Loutraki. He is now in fourth place in the general classification, two minutes behind Sebastien Ogier, who winning three points. he managed to reduce his gap to the runner-up, Dani Sordo, to 25.0s.
The goddess Fortune did not seem generous with the Spanish driver in the “Rally of the Gods”. In ED9, a flat tire destroyed the rear right wing of the Hyundai i20 N Rally1, as a result of which it faced the rest of the stages with the dust constantly entering the car’s cabin.
Other times, however, luck is with the brave, a fact confirmed in the case of Yohan Rossel, who with a continuous counter-attack set the fastest time in three e.d. and climbed to third in WRC2, setting the stage for a thrilling finale with class leader Sami Pajari (+54.2s) and runner-up Robert Virves (+26.4s). Panagiotis “Roustemis” may be far from claiming the first place in this category, but with a remarkable performance he is the first Greek, in 15th place in the general ranking.
In JWRC/WRC3 Norbert Maior’s prudent driving tactic kept crew and car out of trouble and paid off, securing a gap of over two minutes from Romet Jürgenson and almost four from Petr Borodin, allowing the Romanian crew to take the maiden his win in WRC3. In any case, nothing can be taken for granted. Especially in this year’s race, where the return to the hard special stages proved that predictions are forbidden.
The third day of the race concluded with the sights and sounds of the WRC on the night EKO Super Special Stage on the “Sirius” SEA, the energy needs of which were met by the installed photovoltaic canopies with a total power of 500 kW and the hybrid energy converters.
Tomorrow the picture is expected to change dramatically, at least in terms of road surfaces, as late Saturday night Lamia and the surrounding areas were hit by heavy rainfall.
The race will conclude with the three special stages, with a total length of 54.05 km, and only then will we know who finally managed to show more brain, personality and heart: the necessary characteristics to win a Marathon, like the EKO Rally Citadel.
Source: www.autoblog.gr
