The long opening stage (47.70km) of the 2013 Acropolis Rally has produced plenty of early drama. Evgeny Novikov leads for Ford/Michelin, ahead of Citroën’s Dani Sordo and Volkswagen driver Jari-Matti Latvala. But Ostberg and Hirvonen both lost time, while the championship leader Ogier has stopped with a ‘technical problem’.
La longue première spéciale (47,70 km) du Rallye de l’Acropole 2013 a déjà fait des victimes : Ostberg et Hirvonen ont perdu du temps et le leader du championnat Sébastien Ogier s’est arrêté. Evgeny Novikov est leader sur sa Ford/Michelin devant Dani Sordo et Jari-Matti Latvala.
Very often, the organisers of world championship rounds provide competitors with a chance to find their marks. But not here. To compensate for its shorter format, and to be sure that the notoriously punishing rally lost none of its challenge, the Greeks have laid on an exceptionally tough opening day: a menu of just two stages, but one an awesome 47.70km in length, and the other to be contested at night. The first (‘Kineta-Pissia’) has already caused havoc among the expected leaders…
We found a spot about 25km from the start (and 22km from the finish!) and, frankly, were expecting to see Volkswagen’s Sébastien Ogier take advantage of his late running order to make his mark on the event. Wrong. Instead, it was his Ford rival Novikov who emerged from the mountains east of Corinth at the top of the order, his smooth style through our corner proving deceptively efficient.
As he passed in front of us, our stopwatch told us he was already 11 and 13 seconds faster than Citroën’s Mikko Hirvonen and Dani Sordo respectively. The stage’s second half saw him go even further clear to beat the Spaniard by more than 20 seconds (almost 0.5s/km!), while Hirvonen encountered serious trouble with his DS3 WRC’s steering, dropping almost six minutes and seriously comprising his chances of a second Acropolis win.
Latvala’s more sedate pace was rewarded with a footing on the provisional podium (+36.3s), despite a reported fuel pump problem. However, the test proved catastrophic for his Volkswagen team-mate Ogier who didn’t even reach our vantage point. It seems that his handbrake locked, and that terminally damaged the Polo R WRC’s differentials.
Ostberg (+3m16s) at least had the good fortune of reaching the Stop Control, despite one of his wheels shattering around it bolts. It meant he could stop to replace the offending rim.
Both Citroën and VW had ‘weather men’ on the stage, not to report that the sky was blue and the sun shining beautifully, but to evaluate how much of a problem dust is likely to be when competitors return to the same hills for tonight’s SS2. The Priority 1 drivers will benefit from a gap of four minutes between each car, but it looks as though that might be an unnecessary precaution. True, even with the strong wind blowing in from the nearby Mediterranean, the dust didn’t clear immediately where we were standing on SS1. Instead, it whipped round in circles for maybe a minute, but then magically cleared. That said, some drivers reported problems with visibility..
Hopefully, the phenomenon won’t have an influence on the results as the young drivers face the rare pleasure of driving competitively on dirt in the dark later this evening. There could well be more changes…
One of this afternoon’s more notable performances was produced by ex-F1 star Robert Kubica who claimed the ninth best time in his diminutive Citroën DS3 RRC, despite losing an estimated 30 seconds stuck behind the preceding car…
Pour compenser le format compact et conserver l’identité du Rallye de Grèce, les organisateurs ont programmé un début de rallye particulièrement corsé. L’ES1 (47,70 km) a déjà offert son lot de surprises, en attendant l’ES2 à disputer de nuit.
Nous étions dans l’ES1 à 25 km du départ – quasiment au milieu – et franchement, on s’attendait à voir la Volkswagen/Michelin de Sébastien Ogier avec une belle avance après cette spéciale, en partie grâce à sa bonne position sur la route. Tout faux. C’est la Ford Fiesta RS WRC de Novikov qui émerge en tête, malgré un passage très « coolé » là où nous étions.
Devant nous, le Russe était déjà 11 à 13 secondes plus rapide que les Citroën de Mikko Hirvonen et de Dani Sordo. Evgeny a encore augmenté son avance en seconde partie de spéciale pour conclure avec 20 secondes d’avance sur l’Espagnol, alors qu’Hirvonen était victime d’un souci de direction (crémaillère). Le Finlandais a perdu pratiquement six minutes.
Jari-Matti Latvala est 3e au classement provisoire malgré un problème de pompe à essence ayant causé un tout-droit. C’est le même mal qui serait à l’origine de l’abandon de Sébastien Ogier en début de spéciale. De son côté, Mads Ostberg a perdu plus de 3 minutes après avoir cassé une jante sur une marche en béton et changé sa roue.
Citroën et VW avaient plusieurs hommes météo dans cette spéciale, non pas pour annoncer les risques de pluie, mais pour évaluer le niveau de visibilité après le passage des autos. L’ES2 empruntera les 26 premiers kilomètres de l’ES1. Malgré le fort vent venant de la mer, la poussière ne s’évacue pas immédiatement après chaque auto. Elle tourbillonne pendant environ une minute avant de se dissiper. Mais de nuit, les concurrents s’élanceront toutes les quatre minutes.
En WRC-2, Robert Kubica a signé le meilleur temps (et le 9e au général) malgré avoir été gêné par la poussière d’un concurrent parti devant lui.
