Acropolis Rally – Day One
Hyundai Motorsport is leading Acropolis Rally, the tenth round of the 2023 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) season, with Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe finishing the opening day at the top of the classification.
The legendary event had a disruptive start, with Thursday’s shakedown cancelled due to extreme weather in the area. As a result, crews headed into Friday’s five-stage itinerary, featuring no mid-day service, with little knowledge of the already challenging conditions.
A shortened Loutraki (SS2/4, 10.37km) opened both the morning and afternoon legs, with Pissia (SS3, 16.43km) and a remote tyre-fitting zone splitting the two runs. The day’s longest stages brought the action to a close: Livadia (SS5, 21.03km) and Elantia (SS6, 28.32km), the latter of which featured a twist in the tale for all three Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team crews.
Despite the less than ideal preparation, the Belgians took command of the rally on SS2 Loutraki 1, claiming both the stage win and the lead on the shortened mountain route. The duo went on to take a hat-trick of second-fastest times on the following stages, but it was their performance on SS5 Livadia that really stood out. After electing to fit their Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid with four soft tyres, they extended their gap on the stage by over five seconds – tripling their existing advantage. Unfortunately, mechanical issues on the final stage of the day, SS6 Elatia, saw the pair lose time; the gap to Sébastien Ogier behind now stands at 2.8 seconds.
Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm “survived the day”; after taking second in Thursday’s brand-new Super Special Stage, the Finns fell to sixth after a difficult Friday morning. They came back fighting on the afternoon loop, claiming a top-three stage time on SS4 Loutraki 2 and climbing to fourth overall by the end of the penultimate stage - despite having to repair a radiator leak on the road section. However, their troubles continued on the final stage, and they lost the position to Elfyn Evans. The margins remain tight, with just under seven seconds separating the Finns from the provisional podium places.
It was a testing return for Dani Sordo and Cándido Carrera on their first event since June’s Safari Rally Kenya. Despite mostly clean runs through the stages, the Spaniards struggled in slightly muddier conditions due to their late road order. The crew was running in fifth before the final stage, where a stall cost them both time and position. Now in seventh, the Spanish duo is determined to have a more positive day on Saturday.
Crew Notes: Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (#11 Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid)
- Belgians lead Acropolis Rally in successful start to victory defence
- Crew claimed stage win on SS2 Loutraki 1
Neuville said: “That last stage was stressful; not only was it a challenging one at 28km, but from the very start I could hear a noise coming from the rear differential. I was having a problem with the transmission on previous stages but just on the start line until SS6 Elatia. I couldn’t go full throttle for the first three gears, which was costing me a lot of time. I was a bit worried we wouldn’t make it to the end; thankfully we did. The difficult part now for us is to make our tyre choice tomorrow – we have no opportunity to react in the morning, so we need to make that decision tonight. I’m convinced we made the right call today to be fastest; whether it was a good choice to help us win the rally, we will only know at the end of the weekend.”
Crew Notes: Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (#4 Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid)
- Finns claimed second-fastest time on Thursday’s super special stage
- Despite falling to fifth, crew lies just 6.6 seconds from third place
Lappi said: “When we came to the stop line on SS4, we saw the low water pressure alarm and then found the leak. I think it's both sides of the radiator which got damaged; we managed to fix the front, but the rear we couldn’t. We have been adding water at the stage finishes as well as some other locations – we saw a tap outside a restaurant, so we got some from there as well! Regardless, today’s main struggle was not this problem with the car, but more the conditions on the stages. I never felt really satisfied. We tried something new, but I think we need to go back to my normal set-up. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow; today we tried to maximise the grip but we compromised elsewhere, and I didn’t feel comfortable. I’d like to take a more cautious approach that allows me to push.”
Crew Notes: Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (#6 Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid)
- Spaniards struggled for speed on rally’s mountain roads
- Duo ends first day in disappointing seventh place
Sordo said: “It was so difficult to know where the muddy places are, the stages have changed a lot between the recce and now. I stalled the engine under braking on the final stage, however it was not an amazing day for me overall. Of course, the conditions were tricky, but I did not have good pace. In normal conditions the road cleaning effect is quite high, which might have benefitted us, but it isn’t noticeable this year. We don’t know what tomorrow will be like, but if the stages are anything like what we saw in the recce, it could be really bad. It will be a challenging day if the surface hasn’t dried out quickly.”
Hyundai Motorsport Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul said: “After the difficult situation of the past few days; our thoughts remain with those who have been and still are affected by the extreme weather in the area. It is a credit to the organisers that we could compete here. For us it has been a pretty decent Friday. Leading after the first full day is always a good way to start, and Thierry has been very strong. We made quite aggressive tyre choices, and we will see over the course of the weekend whether it was detrimental to the next two days. Esapekka and Dani are in an interesting position to help Thierry and the team; we know that the rally will be long, so let’s see how the road conditions evolve and how the tyre strategy will pan out.”
Saturday at a glance
- The longest day of Acropolis Rally features six stages covering a competitive distance of 141.52km, split by mid-day service
- Pavliani (SS7/10, 24.25km), Karoutes (SS8/11, 28.49km) and Eleftherohori (SS9/12, 18.02km) will each be tackled twice.
Classification after Day One
| 1 | T. Neuville | M. Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid | 55:10.4 |
| 2 | S. Ogier | V. Landais | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid | +2.8 |
| 3 | K. Rovanperä | J. Halttunen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid | +25.5 |
| 4 | E. Evans | S. Martin | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid | +31.0 |
| 5 | E. Lappi | J. Ferm | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid | +32.1 |
| 6 | T. Katsuta | A. Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid | +41.7 |
| 7 | D. Sordo | C. Carrera | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid | +48.6 |
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