ERC – Ralfs Sirmacis surprise winner of the Acropolis

Ralfs Sirmacis creates a sensation by winning the Rally of the Acropolis. The Latvian, who was making his R5 debut at the wheel of his Skoda Fabia, resisted pressure from Alexey Lukyanuk (Ford Fiesta R5) who damaged his suspension in the second stage.

The 21-year-old rookie won almost three minutes ahead of Lambros Athanassoulos who retained second place for a tenth ahead of Jaromir Tarabus after being slowed down on the last course by a Group N car.

Raul Jeets completes the Skoda quartet more than five minutes behind the winner after taking advantage of the problems of Jaroslaw Koltun (Fiesta R5) who finally finished sixth behind Wojciech Chuchala (Subaru Impreza STI). Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Fiesta R5) managed to move up to eighth place after going off the road the day before.

Discover the report of the Acropolis Rally produced by our special correspondent in issue 2062 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.