Rally Greece 2007

 Rally Greece 2007

Racing data
8th of 16 rounds of the 2007 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Greece
Date:	May 31–3. June 2007
Begin:	Athens
Exams:	21 tests over 357.32 km
Distance:	1,572.33 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Marcus Grönholm Ford Abu Dhabi WRT
Second:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team
Third:	Petter Solberg Subaru World Rally Team

The 54th Rally Greece (also called Rally Acropolis ) was the eighth of 16 FIA World Championship races in 2007. The rally consisted of 21 special stages and was held between May 31 and June 3.

Race report

Marcus Grönholm (Ford) was able to repeat last year's victory at the Rally Greece . With the second win in a row, he had further extended his lead as world championship leader over Sébastien Loeb (Citroën). Grönholm spent the summer break with 65 points in the drivers' world championship and nine points ahead of Loeb. Unlike in Sardinia , where Grönholm could only win because of a mistake by Loeb, this time Grönholm was always in front of Loeb in the overall standings. Grönholm was the first to go to the special stage on Friday morning and lost time. But then he started a successful race to catch up from fourth place. Grönholm moved up rank by rank and ended the day with a wafer-thin lead in front of Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson (both Subaru) who were still leading at noon . Grönholm laid the foundation for his victory on Saturday. He set the fastest time in each of the two runs of the "Agii Theodori" special stage, which is almost 50 kilometers long, and at the end of the day was 43.3 seconds ahead of the competition. In the same special stage Loeb actually wanted to attack Grönholm's lead, but two punctures stopped him. Loeb therefore had to limit the damage and defend second place in front of Petter Solberg.

Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) finished fourth overall, after having set the fastest time in the first special stage on Thursday evening, he started Friday as the leader. On Saturday Hirvonen came off the road at around 150 km / h, raced into several bushes and lost valuable time. With a broken windshield, he fought his way through, but from this point on, more than fourth place was no longer possible.

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 49: 22.6		10
2	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 50: 01.0	00: 38.4	8th
3	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 50: 56.7	01: 34.1	6th
4th	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 52: 03.9	02: 41.3	5
5	Henning Solberg	Cato Menkerud	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 54: 15.3	04: 52.7	4th
6th	Chris Atkinson	Stéphane Prévot	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 55: 54.3	06: 31.7	3
7th	Jan Kopecký	Filip Schovánek	Škoda Fabia WRC	3: 57: 38.4	08: 15.8	2
8th	Manfred Stohl	Ilka Minor	Citroën Xsara WRC	3: 58: 18.8	08: 56.2	1
PCWRC
1 (15)	Toshi Arai	Tony Sircombe	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	4: 10: 08.9	20: 46.3	10
2 (16)	Andreas Aigner	Klaus Wicha	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 13: 07.3	23: 44.7	8th
3 (17)	Mirco Baldacci	Giovanni Agnese	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	4: 13: 21.8	23: 59.2	6th
4 (18)	Mark Higgins	Scott Martin	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 14: 50.8	25: 28.2	5
5 (19)	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Chris Patterson	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	4: 14: 59.2	25: 36.6	4th
6 (21)	Takuma Kamada	Naoki cheese	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	4: 16: 31.5	27: 08.9	3
7 (23)	Gabriel Pozzo	Daniel Stillo	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 19: 44.2	30: 21.6	2
8 (25)	Simone Campedelli	Danilo Fappani	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 20: 51.3	31: 28.7	1

Special stages

Day	WP number	Start CET	WP name	length	driver	automobile	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 May 31st	WP1	19:00	Hippodrome 1	3.20 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	2: 50.8	67.45 km / h	Mikko Hirvonen
Day 2 June 1st	WP2	09:13	Schimatari 1	11.56 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	10: 17.6	67.38 km / h	Marcus Grönholm
	WP3	10:01	Thiva 1	23.76 km	Chris Atkinson	Subaru Impreza WRC	16: 39.0	85.62 km / h	Chris Atkinson
	WP4	11:17	Agia Sotira 1	15.19 km	Chris Atkinson	Subaru Impreza WRC	9: 39.4	94.38 km / h
	WP5	12:40	Olympic Properties 1	5.15 km	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 33.7	86.76 km / h
	WP6	14:55	Schimatari 2	11.56 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	10: 10.1	68.21 km / h
	WP7	15:43	Thiva 2	23.76 km	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	16: 13.2	87.89 km / h	Marcus Grönholm
	WP8	16:59	Agia Sotira 2	15.19 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	9: 25.6	96.68 km / h
	WP9	18:00	Imittos 1	11.43 km	called off	-	-
Day 3 June 2nd	WP10	09:03	Agii Theodori 1	48.88 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	32: 47.9	89.42 km / h
	WP11	10:36	Loutraki 1	9.18 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	7: 21.1	74.92 km / h
	WP12	11:41	Agia Triada 1	10.80 km	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC	7: 24.5	87.47 km / h
	WP13	12:54 pm	Olympic Properties 2	5.15 km	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 23.4	91.15 km / h
	WP14	15:19	Agii Theodori 2	48.88 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	32: 33.0	90.1 km / h
	WP15	16:52	Loutraki 2	9.18 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	7: 14.7	76.02 km / h
	WP16	17:57	Agia Triada 2	10.80 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	7: 17.2	88.93 km / h
	WP17	19:17	Hippodrome 2	3.20 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	2: 52.8	66.67 km / h
Day 3 June 3rd	WP18	07:33	Avlonas 1	20.00 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	12: 05.1	99.3 km / h
	WP19	08:13	Assopia 1	17.87 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	10: 58.6	97.68 km / h
	WP20	08:46	Imittos 2	11.43 km	called off	-	-
	WP21	12:05	Avlonas 2	20.00 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	12: 00.0	100.0 km / h
	WP22	12:45	Assopia 2	17.87	Jari-Matti Latvala	Ford Focus RS WRC	10: 47.8	99.31 km / h
	WP23	14:30	Hippodrome 3	3.20	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	2: 55.4	65.68 km / h

Source:

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Grönholm wins in Greece , accessed on December 28, 2015.
2. ↑ ewrc-results.com: 4. 54th BP Ultimate Acropolis Rally of Greece 2007 , accessed on December 28, 2015

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2007  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website