Acropolis – Who will get close to Oliver Solberg in Greece?

In Lamia, where the 68 is located^e edition rally of the Acropolis, Oliver Solberg will be absent. As permitted by the WRC2 regulations, the Swede has chosen not to include the event in his programme. The leader of the competition, who will contest his last outing of the year in Chile (26-29 September), will undoubtedly follow closely the progress of this 10^e appointment of the season. The Toksport driver has 111 points and he can still score 25. Will that be enough to clinch the title? There are 4 who can beat him. To achieve this, however, it will require them to string together successes, benefit from racing facts and sometimes combine the two. Not easy... In this configuration, a share of victories would suit Oliver.

In the championship order, Yohan Rossel is the first to really threaten Solberg. He is 40 points behind, but he can score a total of 75 over the next three meetings. The progress of the Citroën C3 on gravel, that of the Frenchman on this surface and his speed on tarmac give him excellent chances. The Gardois has all the cards in his hands to be crowned this year. To get closer, he will have to get a podium in Lamia before going to face Oliver in Concepcion and trying to conclude in central Europe. At Citroën, he will not be the only one with assets.

Having only scored points 3 times since January, Nikolay Gryazin is the only contender who will be present until Japan. Now that he has a good knowledge of his C3, will he manage to beat everyone? Fifth with 48 points, he can reach a maximum of 148. Even with the count of his worst result (8 pts), that would make him the 2024 champion. However, he will have to accumulate trophies.

In the current standings, Sami Pajari is second behind Solberg, but he is not the most dangerous rival. If he is only 28 points behind, he will only have two chances to make up for it and his total would be lower than that of the Swede. If, on the other hand, Oliver were to miss in Chile, Pajari would come back into the game, but he would find the double chevron duo on his way. The scenario is identical for Jan Solans. As things stand, the surprising winner of Portugal must also hope for a 0 from the Nordic in Latin America to overtake him during the three rallies in which he will be lined up, but the C3s will also have to be missing and Pajari will have to miss. That is a lot.

In addition to being rich with 28 cars, the WRC2 grid in Greece is also very high-level. In addition to the competitors already mentioned, we must add several "customers" who no longer have anything to consider in the championship, but have the capacity to come and confuse the plans of the title contenders. Authors of complicated seasons so far, Fergus Greensmith (Fabia RS) and Pierre-Louis Loubet (Fabia RS) have nothing else to play for than victory. Georg Linnamäe (Yaris), Josh McErlean (Fabia RS) or Robert Virves (Fabia RS), who have recently stood out, will also be ones to watch.

After the shakedown on Thursday morning, the crews will face 305,5 km of timed stages divided into 15 SS.

WRC2 standings before the Acropolis