How Tanak survived and thrived in the punishing Acropolis Rally heat

Twice Ott Tanak had been denied by Sebastien Ogier in successive World Rally Championship rounds in Portugal and Sardinia – but as they say, third time’s a charm.

The third instalment of the Tanak versus Ogier trilogy at Acropolis Rally Greece went the way of Tanak, who delivered a sublime drive in arguably the most difficult set of conditions the WRC has witnessed in recent years. It was a drive that ended an eight-month barren run for Tanak and Hyundai and put an end to Toyota’s 100% winning start to 2025.

“It has been super challenging, but this is the Acropolis,” said a victorious Tanak, who survived four punishing days.

This year the Acropolis, renowned as the “European Safari”, went up a level, now back to its traditional June date. Stages were much rougher after a prolonged period without rain increasing the risk of punctures and damage to cars. On top of that, crews faced relentless heat and long energy-sapping days as cockpit temperatures nudged 70C. Such heat left drivers searching for the sanctuary of shade on road sections to try and cool down when there was time to stop. It required superhuman efforts from all involved just to survive the 17 stages.

But to conquer the Acropolis requires a strategy and an element of luck. Two check boxes that Tanak could tick last weekend.

“The clear strategy was to keep the air in the tyres, that was the main thing, and to manage the tyre wear and I would say we did everything perfectly,” said the 2019 world champion. “We pushed in the sections where it was smooth and let’s say small risk and this is where we gained the time. When the conditions were rougher we held back so that was the key for the weekend.”

Initially Tanak found the going tough, struggling with the balance in his i20 N, but reverting to a base set-up provided a spark after Friday’s remote service held in 40C heat. By the end of Friday he’d deposed early rally leader Ogier, who once again showed why he is an eight-time world champion, defying the disadvantage of his road position to find himself in the victory fight.

Once ahead, Tanak came under pressure from team-mate Adrien Fourmaux before his challenge was halted, lifting Ogier back to second. This time the Tanak versus Ogier head-to-head was one-way traffic as the former reeled off an almost perfect Saturday, winning five of the six stages to open up a 43.6s lead. Ogier was unable to mount a challenge, partly hampered by his tyre allocation as some of his Hankook tyres had showed early signs of delamination.

Tanak’s charge continued on Sunday as the lead extended but surviving an Acropolis unscathed is rare and the event known as the ‘Rally of the Gods’ had one final sting in the tail. Tanak’s i20 N developed a gearbox issue in the final stage that briefly opened the door for Ogier, but unlike Portugal, where he suffered power steering failure while leading, Tanak wasn’t to be denied.

The concern though was real. There were no smiles on the faces of Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja or celebrations when they nursed their car across the finish line, knowing a nervous 50 kilometre drive to the final time control awaited.

“I’m happy that there was no more drama as it would have been very cruel for Ott. Obviously it was close to turning out to be a disaster for him, but he deserved to win this rally” Sebastien Ogier

For once, the rally gods showed mercy on Tanak, who must regard this 22nd career win as one of his finest. Perhaps more importantly the Estonian has championship leader Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, who finished fourth, firmly locked in his crosshairs just 12 points adrift ahead of a visit to Rally Estonia next month.

“This was a bit too stressful for a victory but in the end it is a big relief and also for the team this win was so much needed,” said Tanak. “There were so many challenges to keep in mind and at the same time Ogier is pushing from behind so you can never have an easy life and back off. Obviously, I always wanted to keep some margin in case we had something and it was needed in the end.”

Ogier as ever was gracious in defeat after coming out the wrong side of another epic fight with his close friend. But again part-time driver Ogier remains a serious force in this title race with three wins and two seconds – a stunning return from his five rallies to date.

Part-time Ogier remains a title threat once again

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“I’m happy that there was no more drama as it would have been very cruel for Ott,” said Ogier. “Obviously it was close to turning out to be a disaster for him, but he deserved to win this rally, his pace has been brilliant the whole weekend. On my side I’m very satisfied as I also did the maximum of what I could do this weekend, and with Ott on this level and with a quite different start position Friday and Saturday made it just not possible, so that is why I can’t have any regrets.”

The Tanak v Ogier trilogy ends here for now as the latter won’t be competing in Estonia, which will produce a few sighs of relief in the service park.

Fourmaux delivers under pressure

Arguably the driver under the most pressure heading into Acropolis was Hyundai’s Fourmaux after his Rally Italy Sardinia unravelled in spectacular fashion. The Frenchman admitted that he went a little “crazy” and let his focus drift after picking up a puncture on the Italian island while fighting for the lead. But much like Tanak, a strong result had been coming as Fourmaux has proved his speed.

After Sardinia his Hyundai team was vocal that he had to change his approach, so the pressure was on Fourmaux to deliver. The information had clearly been taken on board as Fourmaux employed the services of a sports psychologist before the rally to improve the mental side of his game.

In Acropolis, the rally world witnessed a calmer and more focused Fourmaux. The impressive speed crucially remained as three stage wins in the Friday heat put him firmly in the victory hunt, three seconds behind Tanak. Fourmaux was unable to match Tanak’s speed on Saturday, but this mentally stronger version of himself was evident after he clipped a bank in stage 10 that damaged his right-rear suspension. Fourmaux kept his head and performed an impressive repair using tools inside his car to pin his suspension back together to return to service in third without panic of further incident caused by frustration. Fourmaux drove smartly through the remaining stages on Saturday and Sunday to secure his second podium of the season in third.

“It is a bit of a relief because the pressure was going up with the team asking to deliver some results, and in this rally was definitely a big challenge” he added. “On Friday it was crazy with the temperatures inside the cockpit. I was just trying to stay calm and cool and don’t be angry at any time, and it was working and paying off at the end. The key was to stay calm.”

Neuville’s rally to forget, Evans maintains championship lead

It’s totally understandable why Thierry Neuville cut a frustrated figure and was left with few words to describe his Acropolis. It couldn’t have been more contrasting from last year when he won from first on the road, in what proved to be a defining moment of his title-winning campaign.

Neuville suffered three tyre punctures, a broken damper and an engine issue across the event

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

The world champion in need of a result to kick start his title defence after crashing out of the lead in Sardinia seemingly couldn’t buy any good fortune this time around. Once again Neuville found himself in the lead of the rally briefly after stage three, but that was as good as it got. The Acropolis took its toll on Hankook’s tyres and Neuville bore the brunt of that more than anyone, after suffering punctures in stages four and five ending any hopes of victory. A third tyre failure arrived on Saturday resulted in an angry Neuville declaring the tyres “are not on the level [for the WRC]”.

To make matters worse, Neuville suffered a broken damper on Sunday before an engine issue threatened to end his rally completely. Luckily he was able to keep the wounded i20 N alive to net three Power Stage points and finish fifth, 8m59.5s adrift of team-mate and winner Tanak.

He said: “Once we had the puncture on Friday the rally was over. Without a good road position on Saturday you are losing a massive amount of time and even if all the others have a puncture you are too far behind already. There was nothing we could do.”

Championship leader Evans fared much better than Neuville, although it wasn’t an enjoyable rally. Starting first on the road was crippling for the Welshman, but more importantly he stayed out of trouble and avoided punctures to finish fourth, pocketing 17 needed points to keep his championship lead intact, albeit reduced.

“It was just the short nights again that were absolutely killing us. To work in these kind of conditions with less than six hours sleep is difficult” Elfyn Evans

“It is a bit like the story of Sardinia, we have come out of the mess smelling like roses. It’s not been the most enjoyable three events that is for sure,” summarised Evans. “It was definitely hard on Friday [in the heat and opening the road], it was just the short nights again that were absolutely killing us. To work in these kind of conditions with less than six hours sleep is difficult.”

Rovanpera’s gravel struggles continue

The Acropolis Rally is normally an event Kalle Rovanpera enjoys, having produced stellar drives to victories in 2021 and 2023, but there was little enjoyment this year. We have become used to seeing Rovanpera dominate and produce countless jaw-dropping performances, so it is still strange to see him struggle to extract speed on gravel with this year’s Hankook tyres.

The two-time world champion once again couldn’t find a way to gel with the tyres which was most notable on Saturday, as Rovanpera explained: “Every time I tried to push a bit I just lose the line, and there is no grip.”

Getting to grips with Hankook’s gravel tyres remains Rovanpera’s biggest challenge

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Rovanpera ran as high as fourth on Friday before suffering the first of two punctures during the rally. The Toyota driver slipped to eighth dropping behind a recovering Neuville before running off the road in stage 11. Rovanpera braked slightly too late for a right hander and became beached.

Spectators managed to retrieve the car but a broken driveshaft, which may have broken before the off, ended his Saturday. Four points were salvaged from the Power Stage thanks to help of his team-mate Takamoto Katsuta – who made a mistake and crashed out on stage 11, and suffered two punctures – so Katsuta deliberately checked into the previous stage early to incur a penalty and sacrifice road position to his friend. But that was the only positive for Rovanpera.

“Nothing really went well to be honest. We were not on a good pace and not being comfortable in the car and we got two punctures from nowhere and then on Saturday we had an off so pretty much everything that could go wrong, went wrong,” said Rovanpera, who slipped to fourth in the championship, 33 points behind team-mate and leader Evans. “It is surprising that we at least got some points and Taka was helping clean the road so that was good, and a big thanks to him.”

Tyre and fuel system issues cause concern

Aside from the punishing rough gravel roads and the intense heat, the performance of the Hankook tyres and concerning fuel system failures proved major talking points.

All Rally1 runners and multiple Rally2 crews suffered some kind of tyre damage whether that was delaminations or punctures. While Hankook was aware of the challenge, and it must be said conditions were much hotter and rougher than previous years which appeared to exacerbate the problems, this was most definitely the tyre brand’s most difficult challenge yet since becoming the WRC’s supplier.

To its credit, Hankook admitted it has work to do and has vowed to learn from this rally.

“For ourselves we have high standards and we have heard the comments and opinions but any issue is one issue too many so we will just keep challenging ourselves to get better. We still have to improve certain areas when it comes to heat management and so on, so we just continue moving forward and hopefully we can bring improvements,” said Hankook spokesperson Steven Cho.

Meanwhile, fuel system failures caused three Rally1 retirements and triggered an FIA investigation into the matter. All Rally1 teams were forced to monitor and manage a worrying situation throughout the weekend.

Pajari was one of several WRC drivers hit by fuel tank issues

Photo by: Toyota Racing

The FIA appointed TotalEnergies as its new sustainable fuel supplier from April after previous supplier P1 Racing Fuels went into administration. Its start to life in WRC has been relatively smooth, but in Greece Toyota had to retire Sami Pajari, who had been running fourth, due to a fuel system failure. M-Sport had to do the same with Martins Sesks, whose rally was already disrupted by a puncture on Friday. A change of fuel tank allowed Sesks to rejoin the rally, while M-Sport also had to fit another fuel tank to Josh McErlean’s Ford Puma after it developed a similar problem. The Irishman had also been delayed by a stage two puncture and damaged suspension on stage eight. After detecting another issue, and without any more spare fuel tanks, M-Sport had to retire Gregoire Munster in the cruellest of circumstances on Saturday night after the Luxembourger had driven smartly through difficult conditions to hold sixth.

Exactly what caused the issues remains unclear but it is thought the extreme heat acted as a catalyst.

“It is not M-Sport saying we don’t have enough parts, it’s a part that teams carry a set number of spares that are adequate for the amount of problems you see over x number of years. Here has been a complete anomaly and sadly for Greg, he was forced out of the rally and making that phone call was personally very upsetting” Richard Millener

“I think there are certainly issues across all teams we have seen this weekend which needs some pretty quick investigation to understand what is going on. Changing fuel tanks and having issues with fuel is not something we see and not something we want to see so we need to understand it very quickly,” said M-Sport team principal Richard Millener. “If we have to make any changes to the cars before Estonia then we have very little time and it is down to the FIA to sort that.

“It important to say that it is not M-Sport saying we don’t have enough parts, it’s a part that teams carry a set number of spares that are adequate for the amount of problems you see over x number of years. Here has been a complete anomaly and sadly for Greg, he was forced out of the rally and making that phone call was personally very upsetting especially as he had been doing a good job all weekend, and that is why I’m angry about it as it is just not fair.”

It was a cruel end to Munster’s impressive run in Greece

Photo by: M-Sport