Sebastien Loeb takes comfortable win in Acropolis Rally
Sebastien Loeb extended his World Rally Championship lead to 31 points as he clinched his fourth win from this year's six rallies in Greece
Loeb's third Acropolis Rally victory was not an easy one, as he had to overcome both a late puncture and stern challenges from both Ford drivers to secure the win, taking the power stage bonus points as well.
Jari-Matti Latvala led early on, before losing time with an overshoot and handling issues. The Finn, returning to the series after missing Argentina with a broken collarbone, charged back to get within a second of Loeb again, only for a mistake on Saturday to cause a puncture and brake damage, leaving him four minutes off the lead by the end of the day. Latvala eventually finished third.
In the other works Ford, Petter Solberg initially lost ground with a tyre choice error, had a scare when he damaged the underside of his car, and then began carving back into Loeb's lead only to crash out on Sunday's first stage.
All of that left Loeb two minutes clear of Citroen team-mate Mikko Hirvonen, a sufficient margin to hold the lead even when he had to stop and change a punctured tyre with three stages to go.
Hirvonen had dropped a bit of time to a puncture on Friday, but also lacked the pace to stay with the other frontrunners, so was pleased to complete a Citroen one-two ahead of Latvala.
Amid heavy attrition in the rest of the WRC field, Mads Ostberg (Adapta Ford) recovered from a trip off the road on Friday to come back to fourth, ahead of the consistent Martin Prokop's Czech Ford.
Thierry Neuville succeeded in getting through a weekend without using Rally 2, but did lose several minutes with a broken driveshaft on Friday, leaving him a distant sixth for Citroen Junior.
Results after SS22: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 4h42m03.3s 2. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 40.0s 3. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 3m04.8s 4. Mads Ostberg Adapta Ford + 6m16.4s 5. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 7m46.5s 6. Thierry Neuville Citroen Junior + 9m41.4s 7. Sebastien Ogier VW Skoda + 12m59.9s 8. Yazeed Al Rahji Yazeed Ford + 20m12.2s 9. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 23m18.9s 10. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari Seashore Mini + 28m40.5s Other WRC finishers: 11. Armindo Araujo Portugal Mini + 30m28.6s 12. Spyros Pavlides Autotek Ford + 33m51.6s 17. Paulo Nobre Portugal Mini + 59m10.2s 18. Oleksii Tamrazov Ford + 1h04m53.4s WRC retirements: Petter Solberg Ford SS18 Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford SS18 Nasser Al-Attiyah Qatar Citroen SS18 Daniel Oliveira Brazil Ford SS18 Leading power stage times: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 2m21.8s 2. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 0.6s 3. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 1.3s 4. Mads Ostberg Adapta Ford + 2.0s 5. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 2.0s
Sebastien Loeb keeps Acropolis Rally lead despite puncture
Missed victory chance hurts 'like hell'
Loeb to make WRC return at Acropolis Rally
Sebastien Loeb will return to the World Rally Championship to contest the Acropolis Rally for M-Sport in September.
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