Acropolis Rally - 3rd Day - 1st Loop: Neuville steals Ogier's lead in SS8, Lappi/Evans lose their places

At the end of Saturday morning, Thierry Neuville is still leading Acropolis Rally with Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera following him.

Thierry Neuville lost the first place of Acropolis Rally at the end of Stage 7 and slipped behind Sebastien Ogier for 7,8 seconds. However, the Belgian took back the lead in Stage 8 by setting the fastest time there while he extended further his advantage in Stage 9.

Sebastien Ogier dropped to second overall after SS7 despite the fact that he had a moment there as he was very lucky that he did not hit some stones with the wheel when he passed though a water splash. However, he missed a junction and stalled the engine in SS8 which costed him the lead of Acropolis Rally and was behind Neuville for two seconds with one stage remaining for the morning loop.

Kalle Rovanpera completes the 2-3 for Toyota and decreased his gap from Ogier from 25,5 to 12,8 seconds as he was the fastest driver in SS7 and SS9.

Dani Sordo gained three places since Friday and is now fourth overall as he took advantage over his rivals' problems. The Spaniard reported understeer at the end of SS7 while it was hard for him to keep the speed in the corners as he said after SS8.

Elfyn Evans follows the Hyundai driver for 6,4 seconds and lost one place at the end of SS9 as he dropped almost one minute there due to the fact that the dashboard appeared a "high oil temperature" message and drove on EV mode.

Takamoto Katsuta is behind his teammate for 5,3 seconds and lost his chance to overtake Sordo on the classification when he spun 18.2 Km into SS7 and dropped 43,9 seconds there.

Esapekka Lappi is seventh from fifth overall as he lost 34,1 seconds on the opening stage of Saturday due to the fact that he had no handbrake. In addition to that, he lost two places at the end of SS8 as he stopped 9.3 Km into that stage to change a puncture.

Ott Tanak is in eighth place overall and lost more ground in SS7 as his Puma had lower power and no boost.

Watch below the stage times:

Watch below the overall classification after SS9:

Photo Credits: Hyundai