The Day 1 of the 2011 Acropolis Rally reminded us of the glory days of the past. Men and machines had to stand against the rough Greek special stages.
Today crews felt like competing in a Marathon race, as they started from Loutraki and reached up to Fthiotida region after six special stages, some long liaison routes and just one remote service in Kamena Vourla.The starting order played an important role in the formation of the provisional standings. Petter Solberg was the man of the day, as he won four of the six special stages in his Citroen DS3 WRC. He is now leading 51.6 seconds ahead of Sebastien Loeb. The French seven times World Champion lost a lot of time cleaning the road for the others. A puncture stalled him even more.
At the last special stage of the day Mikko Hirvonen and Sebastien Ogier slowed down just before the finish line, so that Loeb concludes the day in the 2nd position. This way they will have him and Solberg cleaning the road tomorrow.
Hirvonen kept a steady pace all day long and in the end his strategy paid off. Ogier, on his side, had problems with the set-up of the car in the morning, but was much faster in the afternoon and followed the same strategy with Hirvonen, in order to avoid starting in front row tomorrow.
Jari-Matti Latvala was quite unlucky; he has been 2nd during most of the day, but in the end a broken front differential destroyed his good effort and drove him down to the 8th place. Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson ended Day 1 at the 5th and 6th place, respectively, while Ott Tanak is 7th and on top of SWRC classification as well.
Top Greek driver Lambros Athanassoulas was also unlucky, as he and his co-driver, Nikos Zakheos, were forced to retire at the second special stage, when one of the wishbones of the Fiesta WRC’s front suspension broke. Tomorrow they will restart their effort under superally.
One of the most impressive facts of Day 1 has been the presence of the fans, something that clearly shows that they missed the sound of WRCars on the Greek mountains in 2010. Tomorrow, the schedule will be formed by 141.89 km of special stages. Top moment of Day 2 will be the nocturnal special stage “Nea Politia”, which will start at 21:33 near Loutraki.
More: acropolisrally.gr
