Miami GP || May 5 || 16h00 (Local time)

SS16: Charging Ogier retakes Acropolis lead

“We pushed very hard on this one”

By Franck Drui

19 June 2011 - 11:38

Sebastien Ogier is back in front in the battle for victory on the Acropolis Rally.

Ogier was 6.2s faster than Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb through stage 16 to build a lead of 6.1s with two stages remaining.

“We pushed very hard on this one,” said Ogier. “We had a good drive and we were happy with this stage. We will have to drive well in the next one also because six seconds is not enough to win.”

Loeb reported losing time cleaning a line for the drivers running behind in his factory DS3 WRC. He said: “I have done a perfect stage, no mistakes and was flat out everywhere. But road cleaning makes the difference and we have no chance to do anything else.”

Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen maintained his outside hopes of victory by going 1.1s faster than Ogier to close to within 7.4s of second-placed Loeb and 13.5s to Ogier. “We’re getting close and I will try,” said Hirvonen. “We found some more traction with the car, maybe that has made the difference.”

Standings after SS16:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA	Citroën DS3 WRC	3h54m16.5s
02	S. LOEB / D. ELENA	Citroën DS3 WRC	+6.1s
03	M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+13.5s
04	P. SOLBERG / C. PATTERSSON	Citroën DS3 WRC	+32.8s
05	H. SOLBERG / I. MINOR	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+5m09.7s
06	M. WILSON / S. MARTIN	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+6m34.9s
07	K. RAIKKONEN / K. LINDSTRÖM	Citroën DS3 WRC	+8m09.1s
08	J. HANNINEN / M. MARKKULA	Skoda Fabia S2000	+10m56.6s
09	J. LATVALA / M. ANTTILA	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+13m07.0s
10	D. KUIPERS / F. MICLOTTE	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+14m33.7s
11	B. SOUSA / A. COSTA	Ford Fiesta S2000	+15m33.7s
12	F. TURÁN / G. ZSIROS	Ford Fiesta S2000	+16m54.0s
13	M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	+17m05.9s
14	H. GASSNER JR / K. WUSTENHAGEN	Skoda Fabia S2000	+17m51.8s
15	M. PROKOP / J. TOMÁNEK	Ford Fiesta S2000	+19m56.0s