Acropolis: Subaru World Rally Team - Leg 2The drivers faced eight stages today. The leg began with the gargantuan 48.20km test, Agii Theodori. The rest of the stages were short by comparison, but the long test was repeated again in the afternoon, when conditions were very
hot and rough. The day ended with a blast around the Olympic horse racing superspecial in Markopoulo.
The total competitive distance was 144.88km. Like Friday, it was another dry, hot and sunny day. Ambient temperatures ranged from 25 to 36 Celsius.
The Subaru World Rally Team has two cars in the points positions after leg two of the event. Petter Solberg and Phil Mills are holding down a strong third place despite a difficult day of rallying in the hills near Athens.
Chris Atkinson and Stephane Prevot have slipped down the order slightly to sixth position in the overall classification. They will be aiming to consolidate that place when the action resumes tomorrow.
Richard Taylor
"It's been a fairly typical day on Rally of Greece and most of the leading competitors have experienced problems of one kind or another. It was as tough as we expected – Chris was slowed by a puncture on the first stage of the day, and Petter had to slow towards the end of the same stage when his visibility was obscured by dust. Then Petter experienced a broken damper near the end of the day, while Chris had a driveshaft problem which cost him quite a lot of time. Nevertheless we still have two cars in the points after two days of extremely challenging conditions. Before the rally we would have been very happy to be looking at a podium and a sixth place, but in light of the position we were in yesterday, we now feel slightly disappointed.
That's a measure of the recent progress the team has made."
Petter Solberg
"Without the damper problem this afternoon I think we could have had a much better result, but we are here, we are on the podium and from the point of view of the team and Subaru we can be happy with what has been achieved. Again we showed we have the performance to take on Marcus and Sebastien and that's very important for the future. But this rally is certainly not over yet. I'm still going to fight tomorrow and as we saw this afternoon, things can change around very quickly."
Chris Atkinson
"We started the day with a really good pace, but again things didn't really go to plan as the day went on. I'm happy with the way I was driving, and it's clear that the basic car package is improving all the time, but the rough conditions gave us a few mechanical problems and prevented us from pushing for a better result. But there's still the chance that we can have a better day tomorrow, so we'll do our best and see what happens."
The final leg of the rally comprises four special stages and then another thrash around the Superspecial inside the stadium at the Olympic equestrian centre. The competitive distance covered will be 78.94km.
Subaru World Rally Team
