Victory for Neville and a convincing 1-2-3 for Hyundai at the EKO Rally Acropolis

Deserved winner of the 2022 EKO Rally Acropolis, Thierry Neville won one of the three stages on the final day to finish ahead of Ott Tanak and Dani Sordo in an impressive 1-2-3 for Hyundai – a first in the Korean company’s history in the WRC !

Ott Tanak won the other two stages and scored valuable points in the fight for the championship with second place in the overall standings and victory in the Power Stage. With three games remaining, they are now 54 points behind leaders Cale Rovaniemi.

Completing the podium for Hyundai was Danny Sordo, who ended up not having the fight with Elfin Evans he had hoped for as his Yaris suffered turbo issues ahead of the first stage of the day and forced the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad to retire.

The top 5 in the ranking of the EKO Rally Acropolis 2022

1. Thierry Neville for Martin Vidage (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
2. Ot Tanak – Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT) +15.0”
3. Dani Sordo – Cadito Carrera (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT) +1′ 49.7”
4. Pierre-Louis Loubet – Vincent Landet (M-Sport Ford WRT) +3′ 42.2”
5. Craig Breen – Paul Nagle (M-Sport Ford WRT) +4′ 09.0”

Emil Lindholm – Rita Hamalainen won the WRC2 class in the Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2. Great performance by Alexandros Tsouloftas – Ross Whittock (Volkswagen Polo GTI Rally2) who finished 9th overall and 3rd in WRC2.

Lambros Athanassoulas – Nikos Zakkhaios with Hyundai i20 N Rally2 also performed very well and took first place among the Greeks in 16th place overall. Vassilis Velanis – Yiannis Velanis (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo Rally2) was the second Greek team to finish 24th overall and third was Nontas Karanikolas – Giorgos Kakavas who had a fantastic race and finished 3rd in the WRC3 Open with the Ford Fiesta Rally3 category and finished 28th overall at the EKO Rally Acropolis 2022.

In the RC4 category, first place was won by Paschalis Hatzimarkos-Marios Tsausoglou with the Peugeot 208 Rally4, moving fast and avoiding the problems that would have caused them to fail. Behind them, Savvas Lefkaditis-Vangelis Akratos set excellent times in their Peugeot 208 Rally4, but were unable to make up for the time lost on the first day.

In the WRC3 category, the title was literally decided at the end. The champion is Robert Virves, who eventually prevailed against Jon Armstrong. The young Estonian took advantage of the problems of his rivals and with his driving with great maturity he secured the prize that leads to 4 races in WRC2 next year. As you have understood, the title of the category, in which all drivers drive Ford Fiesta Rally3, was decided at the ECO Rally Acropolis 2022.

The winners of the Special Routes of the ECO Rally Acropolis 2022

• SS1 / EKO Super Special Stage OAKA: Thierry Neville – Martin Windage (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
• SS2 / Loutraki 1: Sebastian Lebb – Isabelle Galmis (M-Sport Ford WRT)
• SP3 / Harvati: Sebastian Lebb – Isabelle Galmis (M-Sport Ford WRT)
• SP4 / Loutraki 2: Sebastian Lebb – Isabelle Galmis (M-Sport Ford WRT)
• SS5 / Laurel: Pierre-Louis Loubet – Vincent Lande (M-Sport Ford WRT)
• SP6 / Livadia: Pierre-Louis Loubet – Vincent Landet (M-Sport Ford WRT)
• SS7 / Bauxite: Sebastian Loeb – Isabelle Galmis (M-Sport Ford WRT)
• SS8 / Tower 1: Ot Tanak – Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
• SS9 / Orchard 1: Thierry Neville – Martin Vidage (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
• SS10 / Tarzan 1: Thierry Neville – Martin Windage (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
• SS11 / Tower 2: Thierry Neville – Martin Vidage (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
• SS12 / Orchard 2: Dani Sordo – Cadito Carrera (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
• SS13 / Tarzan 2: Ott Tanak – Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
• SS14 / Eleftherohori 1: Ot Tanak – Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
• SS15 / Elatia Regini: Thierry Neville – Martin Vidage (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)
• SS16 / Eleftherohori 2: Ot Tanak – Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)

WRC driver standings

1. Calle Rowanpera: 207 points
2. Ot Tanak: 154 points
3. Thierry Neville: 131 points
4. Elphin Evans: 116 points
5. Takamoto Katsuta: 100 points

WRC Manufacturers’ Championship

1. Toyota Gazoo Racing: 404 points
2. Hyundai Motorsport: 341 points
3. M Sport Ford: 214 points
4. Toyota Gazoo Racing NG: 112 points

For ECO Rally Acropolis 2022 results click here.

The next WRC race is Rally New Zealand on September 29th.

Sportish lives the legendary EKO Acropolis Rally together with EKO, the largest Greek marketing company in its category and a main sponsor of the event and also the “EKO Super Special Stage” in OAKA.