Nightmare morning for the French, Neuville leader of the Acropolis Rally

From dream to nightmare, this is how we could describe Saturday morning in Greece. After an almost perfect day on Friday for Sébastien Loeb and Pierre-Louis Loubet, first and second on the Rally from the Acropolis, the two French people experienced an ordeal on the Greek roads on Saturday morning.

After the Pyrgos marathon special, 33,20 kilometers long, a mechanical problem put an end to the fantastic ride of Loeb, then leading the rally. An alternator failure ended any hope of victory for the nine-time world champion. Despite a vain attempt to repair, Sébastien Loeb and Isabelle Galmiche had to come to their senses and give up.

Leader Sébastien Loeb must abandon in Greece 🇬🇷😩#WRC #AcropolisRally pic.twitter.com/YZBhgLjgo0

- CANAL + Sport (@CanalplusSport) September 10, 2022

A few minutes later, then launched on the 9th special, Pierre-Louis Loubet also suddenly came down from his little cloud. Victim of a puncture to the left front tire in the first kilometers of SS9, the Corsican lost more than a minute, at the same time tearing the left front wing from his bodywork. Disappointed, the young 25-year-old driver fell in the general classification and now finds himself 7th, far, very far from the first place he still occupied yesterday.

🚨 A puncture for Loubet obliterates rally win hopes 🚨

Things are going from bad to so much worse for @MSportLtd 😱🇬🇷#WRC | #WRCLive | #AcropolisRally | #WRCWatchNow

- World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) September 10, 2022

Catastrophe pour les Français mais aussi pour M-Sport, qui visait enfin un bon résultat après tant et tant de galères sur les précédentes épreuves. “It’s a huge disappointment for the team, everyone has worked hard. Sébastien maintained the fighting spirit of the team. We will continue this weekend but it is very disappointing to see this. Especially after what Sébastien had just accomplished in SS8! Seeing the problems of the other competitors, we could have benefited from a comfortable lead at the break” declared a very disappointed Rich Millener (director of M-Sport) upon returning to the service.

When M-Sport is not there, Hyundai dances…

The misfortune of one person makes the happiness of others. Long behind but still well placed, Thierry Neuville was offered the lead in the Acropolis Rally. The Belgian inherited the lead following the retirement of Sébastien Loeb, which gave him a nice boost. boost puisque le Belge a réalisé les deux scratch sur l’ES9 et sur l’ES10. Le pilote Hyundai, qui avait commis une grossière erreur chez lui, à Ypres, veut se rattraper et vise ni plus ni moins que la victoire en Grèce. Après la première boucle de la journée, Thierry Neuville compte 31 secondes d’avance sur Esapekka Lappi et 32″3 sur Ott Tänak.

L’Estonien, qui s’est plaint cette fois-ci d’un problème de différentiel, pourrait aussi réaliser le joli coup du rallye puisque Kalle Rovanperä, leader du championnat, est parti à la faute dans l’ES9. Le Finlandais a percuté un arbre en sortie de virage et a cassé sa suspension arrière gauche, ainsi que plusieurs éléments de carrosserie. Il a tout de même réussi à rallier l’arrivée des deux dernières spéciales de la matinée, au prix d’une dizaine de minutes, alors que Toyota va essayer de réparer la Yaris au parc d’assistance.

Les dégâts sur la Yaris de Rovanperä au départ de l’ES10 © WRC

In the rest of the ranking, Dani Sordo had a discreet but solid race in 4th place overall, ahead of Elfyn Evans and Gus Greensmith. Craig Breen, who caused concern after SS9 by stopping after the end of the special, finally had a smooth morning and moved up to 8th place, ahead of Takamoto Katsuta.

The general classification after SS10:

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