Sebastien Ogier wins WRC Acropolis Rally

Sebastien Ogier

Frenchman, Sebastien Ogier won the Acropolis Rally this weekend ahead of world champion and team mate Sebastien Loeb. The going was not easy for Ogier from the beginning. Loeb was ahead of Ogier during the initial stages as both Citroen drivers performed the role of the road sweepers. The dusty Greek roads meant Ogier was forced to drop his pace and began day three 2.2 sec behind team mate Sebastien Loeb. Ogier benefited from driving second on the road behind his team mate and could follow the world champion’s lines through the gravel stages.

After Sunday’s opening stage, Ogier pulled out a lead of 0.1 sec over Loeb. Later on, Loeb did fight back to take hold of the top spot once again. After the repeater runs of stage 16 and 17, Ogier was able to pull away from his team mate and into the lead of the rally. Hanging dust was the main concern for Ogier throughout the rally and had to slow down momentarily during the course the of the rally. Ogier was able to stay out of trouble by managing his speed as the main aim was to not make any mistake. The Frenchman lead the rally by 10.5 sec with just the Power Stage left to run.

Sebastien Loeb

Ogier won the Power Stage by a whisker which secured three bonus points for being the fastest over the stage. The Citroen driver won the stage by just 0.009 sec. In the end, Ogier earned 25 points by winning the Acropolis round of the 2011 WRC season while the seven time world champion, Sebastien Loeb had to settle for second spot. Fords, Mikko Hirvonen was third just 2.6 sec shy of the time set by Loeb in his factory Citroen DS3 WRC machine.

“It was a difficult start on Friday but I managed to find a good rhythm, especially yesterday when we pushed hard,” said the 27-year-old Frenchman. “I am very happy and it’s perfect to get this result,” he said.

In the drivers championship, Sebastien Loeb leads Mikko Hirvonen by 17 points. A second place finish at Greece takes Loeb’s points tally to 146 while Hirvonen trails behind on 129 points. In the constructors championship, Citroen now leads Ford by 55 points after their one-two finish at the Acropolis rally. Ford’s number 2 driver, Jari-Matti Latvala also showed descent pace and was quickest on the four out of five of the stages run on the final day. Latvala finished ninth overall after mechanical glitches earlier in the rally.

Jari-Matti Latvala

“It has been a great battle for sure but it was a bit frustrating not to win because I think we were the fastest on the rally,” said Loeb. “We cleaned the road two times and that was a big disadvantage. We could not do any better.”

Peter Solberg lead the rally on day one but in the end had to settle for fourth overall after the final day. Solberg was content with his performance and thought it was impossible to do any better being a private team. While, Peter’s elder brother Henning in his M-Sport Fiesta finished fifth behind Peter and ahead of team mate Matthew Wilson. 2007 Formula 1 champion, Kimi Raikkonen finished seventh in his Ice 1 Racing Citroen DS3 WRC who returned to WRC after missing out on the previous two rounds.

“I was happy with my performance but I can’t do more than this,” said the Norwegian. “I pushed hard and tried everything but a private team is a private team and it’s difficult.”

Via WRC and Image courtesy Rallysportlive

Share and Enjoy: