SS18: Power Stage triumph for Ogier

Sebastien Ogier has won the Acropolis Rally-closing Power Stage to claim his fifth victory in the world championship and his third of 2011.

Driving a Citroen DS3 WRC, Ogier was 0.009s faster than team-mate Sebastien Loeb, who also had to settle for second in the overall standings.

“It was a very good rally for me,” said Ogier, who bagged three bonus points for his Power Stage victory. “I’m very happy and it’s perfect to get this result.”

Mikko Hirvonen was 0.5s faster than Ogier at the first timing split but had to settle for third his Ford Fiesta RS WRC after completing the stage with a damaged right-rear tyre. The Finn said: “I really tried to push hard and tried all the way to the end.”

Jari-Matti Latvala’s hopes of winning the Power Stage were dashed when he had to tackle the stage with a broken rear roll bar on his factory Fiesta, which occurred on the previous stage.

Matthew Wilson reported a possible recurrence of the misfire that slowed him on day two while Kimi Raikkonen said he lost time running wide on two corners.

Greek driver Lambros Athanassoulas tipped his Fiesta on to two wheels when he clipped a bank but made it through the stage unscathed.

Juho Hanninen won the Super 2000 World Rally Championship section in his Red Bull Skoda Fabia.