Emilia Romagna GP || May 19 || 15h00 (Local time)

SS3 : Solbergs extends Acropolis lead

With a third stage win

By Franck Drui

17 June 2011 - 13:37

Petter Solberg has extended his lead of the Acropolis Rally by recording his third consecutive fastest stage time in his Citroen DS3 WRC.

The Norwegian, running fifth on the road, completed the 18.10-kilometre Eleftherohori stage 3.3s faster than World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Loeb. As a result he grows his overall advantage to 27.2s.

Citroen Total World Rally Team star Loeb has closed to within 0.7s of Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen following the notoriously rough test.

Loeb’s fellow Citroen driver Sebastien Ogier was third quickest with Jari-Matti Latvala fourth for Ford, one place ahead of team-mate Hirvonen.

Henning Solberg was sixth fastest to move ahead of M-Sport Stobart Ford team-mate Matthew Wilson into seventh overall.

Standings after SS3:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	P. SOLBERG / C. PATTERSSON	Citroën DS3 WRC	55m43.1s
02	J. LATVALA / M. ANTTILA	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+27.2s
03	M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+34.7s
04	S. LOEB / D. ELENA	Citroën DS3 WRC	+35.4s
05	S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA	Citroën DS3 WRC	+40.4s
06	M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+1m03.3s
07	H. SOLBERG / I. MINOR	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+1m07.7s
08	M. WILSON / S. MARTIN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+1m17.1s
09	O. TÄNAK / K. SIKK	Ford Fiesta S2000	+2m01.7s
10	K. RAIKKONEN / K. LINDSTRÖM	Citroën DS3 WRC	+2m07.7s
11	J. HANNINEN / M. MARKKULA	Skoda Fabia S2000	+2m18.0s
12	A. ARAÚJO / M. RAMALHO	Mini WRC	+2m46.9s
13	B. SOUSA / A. COSTA	Ford Fiesta S2000	+2m58.5s
14	D. KUIPERS / F. MICLOTTE	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+3m08.5s
15	E. BRYNILDSEN / C. MENKERUD	Skoda Fabia S2000	+3m16.7s