Tanak pulls clear of Ogier while Rovanpera retires

Ott Tanak opened up a 43.6s lead over Sebastien Ogier heading into the final day of the Acropolis Rally Greece, as Hyundai edged closer to a first win of the 2025 World Rally Championship season. 

Tanak delivered a dominant drive claiming five of Saturday’s six rough gravel stages, held once again in stifling hot temperatures.

The Hyundai driver transformed a three-second overnight lead into a relatively healthy margin with four Sunday stages remaining. Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux ended the day in third [+2m08.0s] following a mistake in stage 10.  

Tanak opted to revert back to a base set-up on his i20 N after struggling to find the balance on Friday, which seemed to better suit the Estonian in the challenging conditions. 

“It’s been great. It was an extremely demanding day with very tough stages. We had a good road position and the car was improving over the course of the day,” said Tanak.

Ogier did break Tanak’s stage winning streak in Stage 10, but was unable to match his rival’s speed across the afternoon. The eight-time world champion was, however, focused on avoiding any delays to punctures or damage to his GR Yaris.  

Fourmaux started the day as Tanak’s nearest rival, but dropped away from the 2019 world champion after the opening two stages.

The Frenchman slipped to third behind Toyota’s Ogier when he clipped a bank, resulting in a 1m11.0s time loss. Fourmaux had to make roadside repairs to his i20 N before completing the 60km drive to the midday service without incurring a time penalty.

“We knew we had 60 minutes to do 60 kilometres,” said Fourmaux, who reached the end of the day, despite knocking a tyre off the rim in the afternoon.

“There was no need to put ourselves under pressure. The [suspension] arm was broken, so I put a pin on it like in medicine and I tightened it.

“We also put a strap on, so the wheel wouldn’t go too far and we came back quietly.”

Toyota suffers double blow

The drama continued into the afternoon as Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera and Takamoto Katsuta retired from the action, in what was a particularly rough stage 11 (Pavliani 2 – 24.58 km).

Rovanpera was seventh having struggled to find the sweet stop aboard his GR Yaris. The two-time world champion overshot a right hander and became beached on the edge of the road.

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Luckily, spectators were able to help push the car back onto the stage, although a suspected brake and driveshaft issue meant Rovanpera would stop later in the stage and go no further.

Moments later, team-mate Katsuta ran off the road after misjudging his braking into a left-hander, 600 metres from the stage end. The Japanese driver’s GR Yaris was struck on a gravel ridge agonisingly close to the road edge.

“Basically at the end of the stage under braking there was a rocky place and the car didn’t stop so well,” said Katsuta, who held fifth before the mistake.

“It was bumping a bit and the car really didn’t stop. I nearly made the corner but the front just couldn’t turn. There was a gravel bank and unfortunately we just got stuck on top of this bank and we couldn’t get out. 

“It was my mistake but also there was quite bad luck. It feels very stupid and for sure I was not trying to push a lot, and everything was under control. But this one braking point got me, it is very difficult to accept. I think it was just myself, the car was good and working fine.”

The double exit left only one other Toyota Rally1 car remaining in the rally driven by championship leader Elfyn Evans. The Welshman, forced to run hard tyres for much of the day, enjoyed a trouble-free pass to hold fourth [+3m04.4s].

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville continued his recovery from a series of punctures, including two issues on Saturday morning, to move into fifth [+4m17.7s].

M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster dropped to sixth after fighting through the six stages without the use of the handbrake in his Ford Puma. His team-mate Josh McErlean battled the same issue, having already lost time to damaged rear suspension in stage 8 in the morning. 

Oliver Solberg continued to set the pace in WRC2, ending the day in seventh with more than a minute lead over rival Gus Greensmith. 

The crews will face an unusually long final day with 99km of stages scheduled on Sunday.