SS1: Solberg sets early pace in Greece

Following the spectacular ceremonial start at the famous Acropolis in Athens on Thursday evening, the Acropolis Rally kicked off with the 23.60-kilometre Thiva stage north-east of the event base in Loutraki this morning.

Petter Solberg was fastest through the test in his privately entered Citroen DS3 WRC to open up a narrow lead of 0.5s over factory Ford Fiesta RS WRC pilot Jari-Matti Latvala.

“It’s a good start,” said Norwegian Solberg. “I’m not perfectly happy with everything but I know what to do in service to get things even better.”

Latvala said: “It was quite a good start but there were a couple of places where I made little mistakes I can improve on the second run. I can see the line on the road was starting to clean.”

Evgeny Novikov impressed with the third fastest time in his M-Sport Stobart Fiesta despite reporting struggling to find the “right gear” for certain corners.

Matthew Wilson was a strong fourth in his similar car although the Briton felt he could have gone quicker had it not been for a gear change problem.

World championship leader Sebastien Loeb lost time through the stage clearing the road of the loose surface gravel for the drivers behind in his Citroen DS3 WRC by running first on the road. He was eighth quickest and said: “There was a lot of loose gravel, it’s full dry. I was pushing hard but you have no chance. You have to accept to lose time.”

Mikko Hirvonen was fifth fastest in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC. He said: “I hit a bank nearly in the end of the stage and thought I had a puncture. I was sliding so much in the corners but there was no big drama. It’s very dry and for sure the road will be cleaning.”

Sebastien Ogier was 0.3s slower than Hirvonen in sixth overall at the wheel of a DS3 WRC. “I have a lot of understeer, I am no not at all happy,” said the French driver.

Standings after SS1: