Neuville and Hyundai writes history on Rally Greece return

The Hyundai team is looking to become stronger and stronger after claiming a third consecutive win with Thierry Neuville at EKO Acropolis Rally Greece, he fronted a 1-2-3 finish for the Korean outfit as they wrote a new chapter in the history books.

The Belgian took over the rally lead quite early on the Saturday after the nine-time rally champion Sébastien Loeb, who also drove on the rally 10 years earlier when it was last featured on the calendar, had to retire due to an alternator failure with his Ford Puma Rally1. The Hyundai squad emerged from the penultimate day unscathed while several frontrunners hit trouble and Neuville held almost half a minute lead over his teammate Ott Tänak ahead of the final leg.

Tänak managed to close in by 2.9 seconds on the first pass through the Elefthori stage but had to back off as team orders came into play, so he had to settle for a second place with the part-time driver Dani Sordo locking out the all-Hyundai podium in third.

Elfyn Evans who was then the leading Toyota Gazoo Racing driver was sidelined by a turbo failure on the road section before the opener, leaving the Hyundai drivers with three minutes clear and they were ordered to swift to safety mode to bring the three Hyundai i20 Rally1 cars home.

Tänak is also closing in on the title fight after the second-place finish, he is now 53 points shy of the leader Kalle Rovanperä, who finished another disappointing rally over 17 minutes back of Neuville, the Finn who is on route to becoming the youngest WRC champion hit a tree on Saturday but he managed to salvage four points by taking the second fastest time on the power stage.

Pierre-Louis Loubet took a career-best finish in fourth place and was the leading M-Sport driver while teammate Craig Breen finished in sixth. Takamoto Katsuta finished the rally with promising results once again and became the best Toyota driver. Emil Lindholm took the WRC2 followed by Nikolay Gryazin, Alexandros Tsouloftas, and Eyvind Brynildsen who are rounding up the top 10.

In the Junior WRC, the crown was handed this weekend when Estonian´s Robert Virves managed to secure the title over the defending champion Sami Pajari.