Acropolis: Subaru World Rally Team - Leg 1After the rally-opening Superspecial on Thursday evening, the first full day of action comprised seven special stages.
In the morning the crews tackled four tests then, after a 30-minute service back in Markopoulo, headed
back out into the hills near Athens in the afternoon to drive the Schimatari, Thiva and Agia Sotira stages for a second time.
A very positive opening leg for the Subaru World Rally Team ended with both cars in podium positions. The team's shrewd choice of tyres enabled Chris Atkinson to forge into the lead of the rally early on, and Petter was soon up to a close second overall.
Conditions in the afternoon were tougher – Petter maintained his second place but Chris slipped to third. However, both cars are on course to achieve strong points finishes, which was the team's pre-rally objective for this hot, arduous gravel event.
Richard Taylor
"We're delighted to have two cars in podium positions at the end of leg one. We made a strong tyre choice for this morning's loop of stages and it was fantastic for Chris to be leading when the cars came back into service at mid-day. The team performance today is proof that we're moving in the right direction with the development of the car. We haven't made huge gains in any one section of the car, but we have made small progress in a few areas and it's great to see those changes having a positive result.
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Petter Solberg
"Not bad at all and it's great to be back in the fight! The small improvements that the guys have done before the rally seem to working and even though we're still lacking some speed I'm second overall and I'm happy because I can feel that we are on the right track. Like Chris we had a good morning, and then a more difficult afternoon when I struggled a bit with the handling, but still the times overall have been positive and I know there's more speed to come. Tomorrow I really hope that we can get the whole package working well again, I expect that we'll see a very exciting fight on the stages."
Chris Atkinson
"We kept trying today, that's for sure! We didn't have the best car balance this afternoon compared to the morning - even though we didn't change the set-up at the midday service - but we kept pushing as hard as we could and we've come back to service still third overall. Of course it's good to be in such a strong position tonight, but the top ten is so close it's crazy! Most of the repeated stages weren't as cut up as I expected they'd be, but the last one was extremely rough. I wanted to keep the third place so went absolutely flat out, the car was bouncing off everything on the way through – so it was a relief that everything held together!"
Another eight stages await the drivers tomorrow. The leg begins with a gargantuan 48.88km test, Agii Theodori. The rest of the stages are short by comparison, but the long test is repeated again in the afternoon, when conditions are likely to be very rough.
The day ends with another blast around the Olympic horse racing superspecial in Markopoulo. The total competitive distance will be 146.08km.
Source Subaru World Rally Team
