Acropolis Rally Greece: Day 3 Cruel fate for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing fightback

Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It’s a difficult moment for us. Sometimes when things start to go wrong direction, they can keep going wrong, and that’s just how it is. It’s been a tough weekend, but Seb is a fighter and after what happened on Friday, he had to push. He needed to try to win the Power Stage and the Sunday standings because with that we would have been able to recover some ground in the championship. What happened in the last stage was unfortunate and we paid a big penalty for it, but at least he and Vincent could bring the car to the finish. We keep fighting, we will not lose that spirit, and we’ll take it rally-by-rally and see what the results will be. One positive to take away from today is that our Rally2 car won WRC2 in the hands of Sami and Enni, and that is something really nice to see.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“After a difficult weekend, today didn’t go as well as we would have liked. Clearly, the speed is still missing unfortunately. In some sections and moments we were still performing OK, but I didn’t feel fully at home to really push with no worries. I was probably too keen to finish cleanly after what’s been a difficult few days. It’s been a big disappointment lately, things have not been going well and we need to get back on the right track. We have some work to do and we’ll look to start again fresh in the next event.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“We gave everything all weekend. We did a lot right, we had a great feeling in the car and great pace, and we fought as hard as we could until the last stage. Unfortunately we picked up a puncture around a kilometre in, I didn’t react to brake early enough for the next corner, and we rolled. Thankfully we managed to fix the car and bring it back to service, and bring at least some points to the team. It’s been a strange weekend. In many aspects it was close to perfection, but it doesn’t count in rallying if you don’t bring it all to the end. This is not a rally where you want to be taking risks, you need some luck to do so, and it was not on our side. It’s satisfying for me to still be able to compete like this: I enjoy pushing the limits, it’s been fun in the car. But I know very well after all these years that sometimes it doesn’t go your way. I will still be there in the next three events, continuing to give my best and keep fighting.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It’s been a very tough rally. Today on the final day we also had some difficulties. The stages were rough and I tried to take some points on the Power Stage in particular, but unfortunately, we picked up a puncture. This probably cost us the chance to take some more points. It’s been a disappointing weekend and I’m sorry for the team. The car felt amazing at the beginning of the rally, but with my small mistake our chances of a good result were over, so I need to do a better job in future.”

PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, ACROPOLIS RALLY GREECE
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) 3h38m04.2s
2 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m46.8s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +2m57.3s
4 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +7m01.1s
5 Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +7m01.1s
6 Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral (Citroën C3 Rally2) +7m31.9s
7 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m54.0s
8 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +11m27.9s
9 Josh McErlean/James Fulton (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +12m27.2s
10 Roberto Daprà/Luca Guglielmetti (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +13m44.9s
16 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +23m44.5s
18 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +24m45.5s
30 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +41m22.2s
(Results as of 16:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 10:
1 Thierry Neuville 192 points
2 Ott Tänak 158
3 Sébastien Ogier 154
4 Elfyn Evans 140
5 Adrien Fourmaux 130
6 Kalle Rovanperä 86
7 Takamoto Katsuta 80
8 Dani Sordo 44
9 Sami Pajari 34
10 Esapekka Lappi 33

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 10:
1 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 413 points
2 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 388
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 215

What’s next?
Rally Chile takes place on September 26-29 in the forests of the Bio Bío region around the city of Concepción on South America’s Pacific coast. The stages are technical but largely fast with a mix of smooth and abrasive gravel.