The dramas of this year's Rally Acropolis Greece have an unexpected result in the WRC2 category: a coincidence of times in the first two places. However, the Estonian crew of Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk, who set the same time as the winners, had to settle for second place. Seven crews with Škoda cars finished in the top ten of this category.
Such drama is not often seen in rallying. The demanding Acropolis Rally Greece generally does not spare dramatic situations and this year's event confirmed it doubly. In addition to several punctures and many other complications, this year's Greek leg of the World Rally Championship brought an unusual battle for victory in the WRC2 category. The competition got off to a good start on Friday with the duo of Robert Virves and Aleks Lesk from the RaceSeven team taking the lead after the first day with their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 special.
But Saturday's leg didn't go as smoothly for the crew as Friday's. Virves and Lesk lost the lead in the morning and lost even more time due to a puncture, so common in Greece. The pair thus defended the second place in the overall standings but lost almost thirty seconds to the pair of Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen. On Sunday, the Estonian duo had only three stages left to do something about their rivals' lead. And when the Estonians lost more time to the Finnish pair in the first one on Sunday, it looked a bit hopeless. Pajari's lead at the front of the field was 38.5 seconds.
However, Virves and Lesk did not give up and gave a literally heroic performance. In the fourteenth special stage, they were ten seconds ahead of their rivals and during the final Power Stage, they closed the gap by an incredible 28.5 seconds. But it was not enough to win the competition. The rare coincidence of times that resulted from this chase meant that another rule would decide the winner. And that says that the crew that is faster in the first stage has an advantage. And since Virves and Lesk had a slightly slower start in this case, it was Pajari/Mälkönen who celebrated victory in the Greek Rally. The Estonian duo had to settle for second place in the WRC2 standings.
Other Škoda crews also experienced a very difficult rally in Greece. For example, the promising duo of Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson had to withdraw from the competition on Friday after a collision with a cow. At that moment, the crew was third in the WRC2 category. "Cows are no longer my second favourite animal," Greensmith joked.
On Friday, the Polish crew of Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak were in third place in the standings. The latter did not hold this position, but at the end of the rally they finished an excellent fourth in the WRC2 category. Behind them were three other crews with Skoda cars in the overall rally standings: Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo De Ohannesian, Josh McErlean/James Fulton and Roberto Daprà/Luca Guglielmetti. The Greek duo Panagiotis Roustemis/Christos Bakloris and the WRC Masters Cup category winners Armin and Ella Kremer also made it into the top ten in the overall standings. The German crew has been on a roll so far, competing in five events and winning all of them in their category. As a result, with three events to go in the championship, the Kremers have secured the title in this sub-category. *
On the other hand, the situation has become dramatic at the top of the WRC2 overall standings. Oliver Solberg, who did not start in Greece, is still in the lead, but he will still have to fight hard for the title. His rivals still have a very good chance.
*Subject to official confirmation by the FIA
