Acropolis : BFGoodrich - FinishFinland's Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen (Ford/BFGoodrich) secured the 28th world class win of their careers on Sunday after a weekend spent coping with the punishing stages of Greece's legendary Acropolis Rally.
They essentially
sealed their success thanks to their performance over what must qualify as the toughest stage of the year: the 48.88km Aghii Theodhori test which turned out to be a gruelling test not only of the cars and drivers but also of their tyres. With the 2007 World Rally Championship now at its midpoint, Grönholm tops the Drivers' standings by a margin of nine points over Loeb, while Ford/BFGoodrich enjoys an 28-point margin over Citroën/BFGoodrich in the Manufacturers' table. The WRC resumes with early August's Rally Finland.
Any serious book about Greek mythology will relate how Aghii Theodhori, situated between Corinth and Athens, is known for two heroes: Theseus - who slayed the sow boar Phaea on his way to Athens - and... Marcus Grönholm who did much more than simply save his bacon many years later!
The 48.88km Aghii Theodhori stage of this weekend's Acropolis Rally was feared by everyone. But while some of the drivers preferred not to admit so much prior to the start - no doubt because they hadn't yet grasped the scale of the task that awaited them – this awesome test lived up to its reputation and is sure to go down in rallying records as an absolute classic.
It saw
Sebastien Loeb lose any chance he had of winning the Greek round, while Petter Solberg broke a damper in it and lost all hopes of a silver medal at the finish. And however much of a challenge it may have been for the WRC drivers, it was utter torture for the tyres.
Only Marcus Grönholm survived it unscathed, despite a bold tyre choice second time round that saw him take the seemingly crazy gamble of using the same rubber as he had done for the morning's run ('9+' g-Force Gravel), despite the hotter ground temperatures (close to 50°C) and the damage caused by the first pass. In all logic, the Ford driver, like his rivals, should have gone for one of the much harder, wider or stronger options in his quota...
When Matthew Wilson and Mikko Hirvonen (Ford), who were on the same choice as Grönholm, arrived at the Stop Control with their tyres shredded to pieces, there were real fears for Grönholm whose split times showed he was pushing hard and at no stage did the gap with Loeb exceed 5 seconds. That is until the 35th kilometre. That's when the outcome was essentially decided, halfway between the Corinthian Gulf and the Aegean Sea. Who would have the final word? Grönholm running on '9+' compound Gravels or Loeb and his wider H1s?
In the end, the final descent to Loutraki - little more than a laurel-lined ribbon of rocks - proved too much for Loeb's tyres "I pushed them too hard at the beginning of the stage and one tyre ended up coming 'unseated' 6km from the finish," recognised the three-time World Champion.
Meanwhile, Marcus Grönholm had succeeded in managing his tyres to perfection and was able to continue at the same unrelenting pace until the flag. The result of the stage saw him double his cushion at the top of the provisional leaderboard and, from then on, he was practically able to cruise through the rest of the event to pick up his second consecutive Acropolis Rally win and the 28th WRC success of his career.
The daunting SS14 could well have played into the hands of Subaru/BFGoodrich's Petter Solberg too. After the Subaru team's faultless early run, which saw Chris Atkinson emerge as leader on Day 1, the Norwegian was 2nd overall by Saturday afternoon and successfully warding off the challenge of
Sebastien Loeb. For SS14, he opted for the new extra-hard compound g-Force Gravel 10 introduced by BFGoodrich on the recent Rally d'Italia-Sardegna. His choice was rewarded with the second quickest time on Aghii Theodhori but a damper had failed with the finish in sight. With no chance to change it, he was compelled to cover the next two tests with a somewhat limping Impreza. Nonetheless, the Subaru/BFGoodrich squad will be pleased to have come away from Greece with a car on the final podium.
Marcus Grönholm (Ford/BFGoodrich)
"My tyre choice for SS14 was a calculated gamble. I knew exactly where I needed to lift to spare the tyres and also where I could push hard. It was a risk but it paid off! We also had a little luck on our side because some parts of the stage were really, really very rough!"
Patrick Letort, Chief BFGoodrich Technician
"With neither Cyprus nor Turkey in the championship this year, this was doubtlessly the toughest weekend of the year for the tyres, especially the awesome 48.88km test. About 33km of it was run on buried rocks which is a particularly hard-wearing type of surface for tyres, not to mention several portions of loose rocks, stones and gravel. Marcus managed his tyres admirably to win the stage and improve on his first pass time by 14 seconds with the same type of tyre even though the conditions were far rougher than they had been in the morning."
BFGoodrich
