How Neuville triumphed over Ogier in the Acropolis Rally mind games battle

Thierry Neuville's 21st World Rally Championship win could prove to be the most important of his career. It certainly felt that way after one of the most demanding recent editions of the Acropolis Rally.

When Neuville pulled into the Lamia service park and clambered out of his Hyundai i20 N for the final time on Sunday, he let out a roar that turned heads. This appeared to be no ordinary celebration in front of rival crews and the waiting media. It was difficult to ignore, much like this year’s Acropolis Rally that lived up to its ‘European Safari’ moniker to produce one of the WRC’s most drama-filled rallies both on and away from the stages.

Neuville was aware of the magnitude of this victory, which could turn the title tide in his favour to finally shake off the WRC bridesmaid tag and become a world rally champion.

“I felt a big release of pressure,” he said after he and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe headed a Hyundai 1-2-3 to deal Toyota’s title hopes a significant blow. “It was a demanding race. There’s no secret, you have seen it has been challenging for everybody. At some point since Saturday morning we were in a position where we couldn’t afford a mistake, we couldn’t afford a puncture, but we just had to keep it going and it wasn’t easy, but we have made it work.”

Neuville’s second win of 2024 arrived after penning a one-year contract extension with Hyundai on the eve of the event. With Hyundai yet to commit its future to the WRC beyond 2025, it further fuelled speculation that the Korean marque is set to depart the factory WRC scene.

Hyundai’s uncertain long-term future aside, a period of prolonged hot weather had rendered Greece’s famous brutal gravel stages even rougher than normal as organisers were faced with challenges in repairing and preparing the roads. This year they featured more loose rocks and bedrock, raising the risk of punctures and drama.

“I think it is [rougher than Kenya] because there are some sections where it's just full of rocks everywhere so there is not much you can do,” said Neuville’s main title rival Sebastien Ogier, who has been confirmed for the remaining rounds of what was initially a partial schedule. “It's very hard to pick a strategy to avoid them, there is no chance to avoid them. You feel powerless.”

Despite struggling with opening the road on Friday and power issues, Neuville emerged triumphant on Sunday

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

If anyone doubted the drivers’ claims that this year’s Acropolis was the toughest in a generation, they were put right after Friday’s opening leg. The rally’s first test, Ano Pavliani, offered an insight as Toyota’s Elfyn Evans witnessed his title hopes suffer another blow when he picked up a puncture. The Welshman at the time felt it was his own error for hitting a compression listed in his notes but, upon review of the data, the tyre had deflated before that moment.

“The puncture actually came from a stone in the line when we checked the videos,” said Evans. “I don’t know what you can do about that.”

After losing more than a minute to change a wheel, his GR Yaris developed a turbo issue that he had to manage by driving in road mode until midday service. This effectively put Evans out of the fight, almost 10 minutes adrift.

The earlier stage delay meant flexi service was cancelled, so Toyota only had time to change the turbo on Evans’s car and not fit a new part as a precaution on Ogier’s car

“We need to get back to normal ways and get back to enjoying being behind the wheel a bit because, honestly, the last rally-and-a-half has been difficult,” reflected a dejected Evans after leaving Greece with only eight more points.

Championship leader Neuville also hit trouble when his i20 N’s engine was reduced to three cylinders for the morning’s three stages, while he attempted to limit the time loss by the “massive sweeping” job he had to undertake when opening the road. Hanging dust left in the wake of Neuville frustrated Ogier and others, who had asked for the three-minute gaps between cars to be increased on safety grounds before the rally.

“It is annoying to see that the sport never learns,” said Ogier at the end of stage one, comments that would incur an unprecedented €30,000 suspended fine from the stewards post-event. “We ask, we know that we are going to have dust. There is hanging dust. Oh, they say no. What do you have in your head? Nothing. It’s crazy.”

The gap did increase to four minutes as a result of a red flag on stage one when local hero Lambros Athanassoulas crashed and blocked the road, which delayed a large portion of the field.

Title bid for Evans took another dent with turbo problems that later hampered Ogier

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Toyota's tough start continued on stage three when a misheard pacenote for Takamoto Katsuta, who had moved to second after winning stage two, resulted in terminal damage to the rear suspension of his GR Yaris. “I need to learn from this and move forward but for sure it’s a very hard moment for me,” said Katsuta.

Despite starting second on the road, Ogier headed to midday service with a 5.9-second lead over the impressive Adrien Fourmaux, with Ott Tanak leading the trio of Hyundais that included veteran Dani Sordo and Neuville, who was 35.7s adrift.

The Acropolis Rally’s gruelling stages struck again when the action resumed. It’s known as the ‘Rally of Gods’ and M-Sport’s Fourmaux said on Thursday that he hoped “the good God” would be on his side. But it wasn’t to be.

Clipping a small rock damaged Fourmaux's front suspension, resulting in his retirement from Friday’s action. The forlorn Frenchman tried to fix the damage in the searing heat, burning his face on the Puma’s brake disc in the process, but jammed bolts meant his efforts were in vain.

“I was cooking my face [like a] barbecue,” said Fourmaux, who bounced back by claiming 11 of the maximum 12 Super Sunday points after winning the Power Stage and finishing second in the Sunday standings. “It's been a tough rally but, to be fair, the only drama we really had was on Friday and all the rest was quite clean, that’s why it's a bit unfortunate and frustrating.”

In contrasting fortunes, team-mate Gregoire Munster logged back-to-back top-four stage times to climb to fifth, only for a puncture on stage six to derail his hopes. Running off the road on Saturday damaged the Puma’s roll cage on stage nine, ending his rally prematurely.

Ogier again generated the headlines both on and away from the stages. The eight-time world champion flexed his muscles to take command of the rally before suffering a similar turbo issue to the one that had struck Evans at the end of stage five. The earlier stage delay meant flexi service was cancelled, so Toyota only had time to change the turbo on Evans’s car and not fit a new part as a precaution on Ogier’s car.

That cost Ogier more than two and half minutes, demoting him from the lead to fourth behind a Hyundai 1-2-3, led by Tanak, followed by Sordo and Neuville. Toyota’s rally unfolding in dramatic fashion so early left team principal Jari-Matti Latvala to describe the day as “Black Friday”. According to the Finn, the turbo issues were likely down to a team mistake.

Tanak led after a trouble-free Friday, but was twice halted by punctures on Saturday

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

“If we have problems, they [Hyundai] may have problems - you never know,” said Latvala on Friday evening. But the damage to Toyota’s drivers’ and manufacturers’ title battles had been inflicted: “With this heat and this roughness, it is asking a lot from the car [to make up the lost time].”

At the end-of-day media zone, Ogier chose this moment to play some mind games and light up social media with comments directed at Neuville, who has bemoaned opening the roads for much of the year.

“We proved that the championship leader is not that fast honestly because he was first on the road and we were second on the road and we took 45 seconds in four stages,” said Ogier. “Maybe he should stop crying and learn to drive first on the road.”

Neuville rounded off the day by winning one of the WRC’s most unusual superspecial stages, held in a motorway service station! More importantly he’d secured the provisional maximum 18 points for topping the Saturday classification

Neuville chose not to react verbally, brushing away the comments with a simple “I don’t care”. During a 14-hour Saturday without a midday service, Neuville issued the perfect response on the six stages. The Belgian avoided the myriad pitfalls thrown at him to lead the rally by 1m03.7s from Sordo. But just as Friday had been tough on Toyota, the Acropolis made Hyundai suffer on Saturday.

Neuville leapt into the rally lead after stage nine, following an extraordinary turn of events for Tanak and Sordo. Tanak was the only driver of the five championship contenders to avoid issues on Friday, but on Saturday’s first stage, he joined the puncture club. The 2019 world champion was forced to stop twice to change wheels for a loss of more than four minutes as he slumped from the lead to fourth.

Sordo’s day had already begun with a cut above his right eye, caused by a jack while making set-up changes to his car. It quickly became even more eventful when a puncture on stage nine resulted in a delaminated tyre ripping a hole through the bodywork on the right-rear corner of his i20 N, causing dust to enter the cabin. It prompted Sordo and co-driver Candido Carrera to don goggles’ ‘Mad Max’-style to help with visibility.

“I look more stupid than I am, no? We have the best mechanics in the world,” quipped Sordo, wearing his goggles after his team managed to patch up his i20 N at a tyre-fitting zone.

Neuville rounded off the day by winning one of the WRC’s most unusual superspecial stages, held in a motorway service station! More importantly, he’d secured the provisional maximum 18 points for topping the Saturday classification from Sordo, with Ogier 17.2s adrift of the Spaniard.

Neuville inspects the damage on team-mate Sordo's car after his punctured right-rear tyre shredded bodywork, causing dust to encroach into the cockpit

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Meanwhile, there was a small scare for Tanak, who somehow managed to avoid his i20 N from toppling over after hitting a rut at a slow hairpin. That had already caught out Evans, who rolled into retirement on Saturday evening.

Neuville and Ogier both knew that the game was not up, with 12 points up for grabs from Sunday’s three stages that offered a risk-versus-reward quandary. The slightest error would be punished with a zero points score from the weekend.

“It has been a good day, but nothing is done yet and we have to keep that in mind; Sunday is a challenging day,” said Neuville.

Ogier added: “I would describe the Power Stage as the roughest stage of the weekend. I think we might not have seen all of the action.”

Attempting to recover the lost ground from Friday, Ogier went on the attack on stages that featured muddy and slippery sections thanks to a wild thunderstorm that struck host city Lamia on Saturday night. The plan appeared to work as the Toyota driver rose to second overall ahead of Sordo, and topped the Super Sunday classification with a cautious Neuville in third.

However, the Acropolis Rally had one final dramatic sting in the tail. The Power Stage, delayed by a spectator medical issue, lived up to its billing as Ogier picked up a puncture. At the very next braking zone, he understeered off the road, rolling his GR Yaris. For a moment a no-score seemed likely, but Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais repaired the damaged suspension to crawl home and salvage Saturday’s 13 points.

It handed the spoils to Neuville and Hyundai as the former took the win by 1m46.8s from Sordo, with Tanak third in what could prove a pivotal moment for determining the destination of the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles.

“For us, the [title] chances are pretty much gone and we need to change the target to try, from now on, to start winning events,” said a dejected Latvala.

Final stage disaster for Ogier meant he lost all Sunday points, but did at least salvage some from his overnight classification on Saturday

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Posting on social media, Ogier, who won eight of the 15 stages, wrote: “Well, I guess I got a bit of Karma in the end! Part of the game.

“It was a fun week at Acropolis Rally, I gave my all to recover as much as possible after our misfortune on Friday but it didn’t pay off this time. We’ll be back very soon. Now back to my loved ones. And, last but not least, I hope you have been entertained! Well done Thierry Neuville and Hyundai for the win.”

Incredibly, WRC2 title contender Sami Pajari finished fourth overall, winning the second tier class on countback rules from Robert Virves, after the pair finished with identical overall times.

For Neuville, a career-defining goal is coming into view. He is 34 points ahead of nearest rival Tanak, with three rallies remaining.

“It's a big moment, of course, if you can increase the championship lead by seven points,” he said. “It’s fantastic, there's nothing to add to that.”

After heading an all-Hyundai podium, Neuville's lead looks strong with three events left

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport