64. EKO Acropolis Rally 2018
31. 5. – 3. 6. 2018, Lamia • OMAE • gravel 237.89 km • total distance including road sections - 867.72 km • Other years
Greece gravel championship crews run all the rally as 1 round with different regulations
Info
SS12
"This rally was too hard and difficult. I learnt a lot, next time for us is Cyprus."
"We had a problem with fuel pump from yesterday, now the car got overheated and we had to cool it down."
"Unbeliavable, sometimes much harder than we thought before. But now we are ready for the Cyprus."
Coming here with older generation of R2 we didn't expect such result. But after yestersday I saw it could be possible so we needed to keep the concentration. I'm really happy, thanks to everyone.
"I did my maximum do be in the finish, it is a good result. OK, we are here."
I can't describe. First day was terrible, wrong tyres, punctures and so on. But it was my first time here so it was not so bad.
"It was not ideal rally to track my improvement. We took it easy, when we tried to push the tyres went out immediately. It needed cool head."
I'm really excited to finish such tough demanding and legendary rally.
"Acropolis is such huge event and finishing it is great result. We had a puncture and a problem with damper yesterday, still I have to thank to everyone."
"For us it was a definition of a difficult weekend. We have a lot to analyze and to learn. We worked hard to get over this weekend, thanks to everyone."
"For sure it was a learning experience, still we need to finish such rally with some good result. Big learning, big experience."
"We had a great speed and confidence, great car, great tyres, great team, great everything. Now we need to focus on the next rally."
"Sometimes the dream comes true. Winning Acropolis is absolutely great, thanks to my sponsors that they believe in me so many years. I dedicate this to them and to my team."
It is unbeliavable for us, before the rally I didn't think we could reach this position.
We are happy, we know there is still a lot of work to do, we will see on the next rally. Really rough rally, I didn't expect that, really lot of stones.
We are very happy, we didn't have such high expectations. Everything went well.
Only with front wheel drive now, it happened already on the first stage of the day but we didn't change the diff in the service and now it has gone.
Yesterday we had a good rhythm and were fighting for a good result, but we lost much time on the last stage of the day. Today we only needed to drive on the road and get to the finish. It's OK.
"We have no more tyres, but we enjoyed it, it was fantastic. Incredible, my best gravel rally, I improved a lot. Fantastic weekend."
Really really happy Sunday, I scored my first points in the ERC. It couldn't be better.
We are very happy, very good job for my co-pilot, for me and for our team. We didn't risk, didn't have a puncture, great result.
Fantastic day, it's our third time with this R5 car, it's great experience.
SS11
"Brakes not working, one more stage to go."
Fantastic day, it's our third time with this R5 car, it's great experience.
"Unfortunately we had a dust from the car in front of us, maybe last three kilometers."
"This is one of our favourite stages, if everything goes well, we are on the podium."
"Not a good stage, not a good time."
"Alonso was almost blocking the road, we had to go out to pass him. We need to arrive to the end now."
"In this stage our friend Alonso was out of the road so we had to slow down."
"We have a problem with rear brake, just need to finish the rally."
We feel sorry for Alonso, he's OK, but unfortunately he rolled. It was a good battle. I think we got hard pressure from each other.
It doesn't bother me anymore. I tried to enjoy the rest of the stage. For the moment it's a good training. The puncture came in fifth corner of the stage and now we don't have a spare. We have to go carefuly in the last one.
Good, it's OK, just one more stage to go.
"Our aim is not to beat Alex, we just want to finish the rally. At the moment we have nothing to compete for, we just need to get through."
"We did really good job here, good pace. Thanks to Pirelli for amazing tyres."
I don't like this stage, it's difficult to get the grip. I drove carefully, it was about survival.
The feeling was OK, we put four new tyres on the car and it's different. We jumped little bit too much, but then nothing.
"Not pushing, we are securing our position. 40 seconds in front of guys behind, I think it could be enough."
"It was cleaner. We have to be careful and enjoy it."
"Some misunderstaning in the pacenotes so we had to back off for a a while, but good push. We lost three minutes yesterday and now we loose less so we could be in the lead, but..."
"Car is working well, no problem. The stage is difficult, we drive slowly, maybe too much careful, just to stay on the road. We must survive, just las stage to go."
We had very clean stage, it's much more easy now. We drove safely, it was OK.
"Good time, lot of fun. Only in one hairpin the car stalled. But OK, fantastic."
"We drive safe. We little bit hit right front. Not a big push."
"It was OK, no stones on the road."
SS10
"This is the last bumper we have so we had to save it, we also had to take out the headlight. I expected todays stages to be more smoother."
Nice road, smooth stage wehere we can push. But I didn't take any risk.
"Good good, I tried to improve the pacenotes and improve the rhythm. We want mainly to finish the rally and improve for the next year."
"Really really good fun. Both these stages were flowing, not many stones, bit tricky, bit of everything."
It's OK. We have a problem with tyres, the car is sliding a lot.
"Everything is good. I did one mistake, but it is OK. We need to keep our position."
Very tricky stage because it's still slippery. With our starting position I thought the grip would be better.
So far so good. Today the stages are much cleaner and enjoyable. Two stages left, let's see what happens.
No problems, quite a lot of stones in the middle of the road, but we didn't have any problems.
"Now we had to save the tyres, we are again on the softs. Luckily for the last loop we have hard ones."
It was OK, in the previous stage we had a problem with brakes and struggled for few last kilometers, but now it was good. We changed the wheel and it's OK.
It felt little bit better now. I didn't take many risk, but we improve and it's under control now. In the previous stage the main mistake was in me.
"We had a big big moment in the stage, few kilometers before the finish we went off the road, the engine stopped and we lost a lot of time."
"We had some moments so we backed off to secure the position."
"Slippery as expected, but generally it was OK."
I need bigger push, but there is still a lot of cleaning. In the next loop it's still possible.
"We drive almost OK, only we did a spin in one slow corner and lost a lot of time before we got back to the right direction. We lost maybe 30 seconds. But OK, I liked this stage."
I'm alive, very difficult stage, very twisty, very slippery. I don't care about the result.
"We went straight in one junction, I forgot the notes, but no problem. Quite OK, lot of sliding again, but we are improving."
"Tricky, very slippery, not so good start position."
"Lot of problems, but we enjoy. We try to go to the end of the rally. Very narrow stage, but we enjoyed. "
SS9
Difficult, very slippery, we don't have brakes.
"Lot of problems, but we enjoy. We try to go to the end of the rally. Very narrow stage, but we enjoyed. "
Difficult stage, but it's good to be back in the race.
I'm just taking it very easy. No point to risk.
"We enjoyed much more than yesterday, it was more slippery, but much more fun."
"We did a huge jump! But everything is OK."
"Everything good, superhappy that we can be back on the stages. "
"It was sliding a bit, we will see what happens."
"We tried to drive safe, not to make any mistake."
So twisty, so slippery, we need to save the car to get to the finish. It's very hot and I'm very old.
Today it's smoother compared to yesterday, but it's more narrow and slippery. We want to get to the finish, it's really tricky.
"Not the best rally for us. This stage was difficult, we hit a stone heavily in the middle of the stage. I though having a puncture, but finally it was OK. Difficult stage, really slippery."
Difficult, we tried to enjoy but it's hard because we messed up the whole rally yesterday. Good feeling, lot of grip changes.
"In very narrow part between two trees I was driving carefully but there was a lot of dust and I touched the tree with the rear."
"Difficult, in few places difficult for the concentration."
"Very good warm-up for me. This stage was very difficult, we had clean line, sometimes too hard on brakes, but it was OK."
"Our plan is not to push, but we are fast, that is surprise."
"We are not prepared to push, we want to secure the points to the championship and go safely."
It wasn't bad. It felt like we have only front drive but it's maybe only so slippery road. Lot of time in the limiter.
Very tricky. We don't push, we must stay on the road. We only can wait, what happens. Today the car is OK, but the roads are really rough to the car.
"Very good. Very slippery because we are still cleaning, but it was good. Many spectators on the jump."
"Everything is OK, but I have never seen stage like this. It has 21 kilometers but for me it felt like it had forty!"
"Very very slippery, we tried to push, but lot of slides. Spectators have fun."
"Little slippery because we are the first car, but everything is OK, no problem."
SS8
"We are done for today, no problem."
"For me it was the most difficult day. But now I feel better, this stage was difficult, lot of stones, but we are finished for today."
"I think this is the cross country. We would like to finish the rally with this car. In places there was no visibility, difficult."
Very very dangerous, in some places we couldn't see anything.
I'm very happy, I enjoy my new car. We are lucky that we had no puncture and stayed on the road. We are here and now go back to Lamia.
Very good stage. There was a lot of dust, in some corners we didn't see nothing. The car is OK. The morning was not very good for us, but in the afternoon everything went well.
Very bad stage for us, we changed the wheels from the trunk and one was empty. But it's OK for us, long day and it will be long also tomorrow.
"Fantastic, I would love to do this stage one more time. Lot of fun."
I'm happy it's finished today, we stayed on the road and that's good. Much better than last year, I enjoyed it.
The road was full of dust, we didn't see anything. We lost maybe 20 seconds.
"Good day, we won the ERC2 and all stages, my car is very good. Now the stage was hard, many many stones."
"Broken wheel in SS 8"
Absolutely no tyres left, but it's life.
"We have a good gap from the others. I had hard tyres for this loop and I lost with that some time on the previous stages, but here it was advantage."
"On the stones I broke the front left wheel. We are disappointed, all the day we tried to go carefully."
"Extremely difficult, very slippery. Before the stage we had a problem with brakes. We repaired it, but the tyres in the last stage were absolutely worn so we tried mainly to get through."
"We started without tyres only on the cord so we had to back off. Tyre-killer stages."
"Up to now we enjoyed the stage. But the tyres were worn and in the end we had a spin and had to reverse. But we are happy. Tomorrow we will have better tyres and we will be more competetive."
SS7
"The stage was very good, but we have a problem with a fuel pump."
It was OK. We changed the car and it's little bit different. We didn't do the previous stage so we have to learn the car.
"No problem, the racing in Greece is fantastic."
Quite OK, but we need some mistakes. But we are also still on the road so it's good.
It's a good fight for us, but Tibor is doing well. We mainly need to stay on the road.
"Very good, better technic, the grip is better, there are not so many stones."
It's OK, we save the position, not making any mistake and trying to make a clean stage.
"The car is like the ping-pong ball..."
"No problems, it was OK. We were trying to avoid stones. But we were waiting long to start the stage so it was get back the concentration."
"I think no tyres left, no grip at all. Completely worn, we would need much harder compound."
"It was careful trying to not making a puncture. We have very hard compound so our performance was not the best, but we mainly want to save the tyres."
"It was OK, much more clean. Sometimes the dust was under the trees, but the feeling was OK. Last kilometer I realised our brakes have gone."
"No problems, everything OK. The stage is in better condition I think."
"OK, everything good, more safe with the car."
SS6
"We increased the speed, no problem, we have a fun for the moment."
It was good. We didn't do any mistake, we try to keep the position.
It's just a matter of getting through the rest of the day. The car is bumping especially when I turn left so maybe a damper is damaged.
"No problems, we hit few stones, but I think everything is good, trying to keep the clean line."
"We tried to get back on time, we have no choice. We have to save the tyres now."
"It was OK, I needed to manage car an tyres so I was not pushing too much. We put the car higher in the service to avoid stones and rocks."
Good fun, let's keep it also in the next one.
I thought this stage would be cleaner now, but it wasn't. The car was sliding quite wide and we couldn't keep the line.
Car is working well, everything is perfect. The road was much much better, we could push little bit more. We had a problem with pop-off and a diff in the morning, now it's OK.
"It was all good. Clean line, but in the first corner after start we hit a stone and thought it was a puncture, luckily it was OK."
"This was much better than in the morning, clean line, we enjoyed it. We put the car higher just for the case."
SS5
"We were sliding everywhere, it was full of rocks."
No fun, I'm looking on rocks in front of us.
The bonnet opened in the middle of the previous stage. It's hard. We need to go higher with the car and change the tyres. We used soft compound in the morning and we lost a lot.
When you get the rhythm, it's really enjoyable. We have no puncture, but it's so slippery. But I enjoy it a lot.
We were wide and hit a rock. But OK, now it's service so I don't care.
It's weird, difficult. Hard to find the proper grip, it's different from last year, very tricky. Little bit insecure in the pacenotes in some places.
"I kow this stage, fantastic. Very good morning for us."
"Very very dangerous road, very hard. We have no tyres, they are flat. We tried to push maybe hard, but saving the car."
The tyres are really worn, I can't imagine how the second loop will look like.
"The car is working, but the conditions are really tough, killing the car. We tried to go contiuously and easy. I think after this rally we have to change a lot of parts on the car."
"We had no intercom, Veronica had to show the corners on her fingers. First kilometers we tried it with phone but then we lost the connection. But still we are not very far from the guys. The road is so rough, I have never seen something like that."
This is all about surviving. I have never seen in my life something like that. It wasn't so rough prevous year, the rocks are everywhere. Enjoying, but suffering in once.
"Hell of a acion, but we enjoy it. After the start of this stage we had to reverse, but then it was OK."
"Not easy to drive, really hard surface with many stones. Many drivers have different line, there is not a clean line, the stones are everywhere."
"I liked the stage, the time is not the best but in the second loop it will be much better. We want to go step by step."
"Unbeliavably tough. We have a problem with the car, we have no power. It is difficult and long rally."
"Very rough, this one was even more slippery. Very bad start position for us. "
"Good, we did some changes to the car. Nice clean stage for us."
SS4
"Very nice, enjoyed it. But the time is not good. We had a problem in first service and we were late out of the service time control."
broken wheel
"We did maybe 10 km with the puncture."
"Something like in Azores last year. I tried to go more carefuly and slowly and hit something inside the corner. One driveshaft is broken now, we have to discuss with the team."
I'm quite busy. Fantastic, welcome to Greece!
"About 10 km before the finish we got the puncture, we tried to be safe, unfortunately we got it."
"Not so happy with out speed, we tried to go carefuly and not to do any damage to the car."
double puncture
"Not easy stage, we tried to push hard but also to save the car."
"Hard to say it in words, I have never seen like this. So many rocks, the most difficult stage in my life."
"We had a slow puncture so we had to stop and change it. It was a tricky place. My plan was to get steady in the stage, there is a lot of rocks, unfortunately we got the puncture."
There is some damage in the rear, I don't know. Double puncture, oh.
Crazy stage, a lot of stones I had to avoid. But it was better than to lose the time with puncture. I lost concentration in some corners because the road couldn't be seen. Lot of rocks.
"We have got a puncture and we changed it in the stage. It took about two minutes, guys had to overtake us."
I thought we had a puncture, aparently it wasn't. We lost so much time.
puncture
It's just start of the rally, unfortunately our start position is not good, we have to clean the road.
Difficult stage, I expected that. I'm happy to be here.
It's all I can do on this road. So slippery, we try to survive.
stopped
Slippery as expected, but it's OK.
SS3
"It came in the beginning, maybe three kilometers in the stage."
The team did great job, they worked until 2 a.m., thanks to the team. The car is like new now. We have little problem with water pressure alarm, but it's OK.
We took it easy. Conditions are quite different, it's really rough. This is a long loop so we try to drive carefully.
Clean run, but it's rough, lot of stones in the line. I tried to avoid any mistake.
"We got the puncture maybe three kilometers after start."
Second on the road is not the best option, we don't have to be surprised and live with that. We tried to go clean, but with this road position it's not easy.
Big fun, but I don't know about the time, with our position it was more slippery than I expected. The car feels little bit better than yesterday.
This stage was quite OK, the road was really slippery, but it's part of this sport.
Not so bad I think, we tried to find the right rhytm. I tried to change my driving style from yesterday, I'm quite happy.
It's OK, we have more grip than before and we pushed more. We are happy.
Very fast stage, not the best for the start of the day, too fast. I was too cautious in some places. Today will be difficult. I don't want to take much risk. The car feels better than yesterday.
"OK, bit slippery, we went safe for the tyres. In the end the car cut out, we lost maybe ten or fifteen seconds."
SS2
accident
"We are happy, thank everybody who helped to start here. Our pacenotes were not perfect. But I was really happy with our speed."
"We missed one corner and we had to reverse. It took us a time. We slide a bit on dust, but everything is ok."
"We needed a lot of confidence. In the middle of stage started to heat, so we were forced to slow. But it was amazing stage."
"It is too hot and difficult. But I am happy here, rally is too long."
"I was fighting with the handling. I am here in Greece for first time, so I dont know how to prepare the car. I have lost a lot of time."
"It was very difficult stage. I cannot drive, it was very rough and very soft, I had problems to stay on the road."
"It is not too rough as I have expected, but very very slippery. I enjoyed the stage."
"I am very tired. It is long special stage for me. I like long special stages, but this was not easy."
"It was very good, but we had problems with brakes."
"Everything is ok. It was very very slippery on this stage. We didnt make any mistake."
"It’s a big surprise. I did some mistakes. The road was really clean for us, better than for guys in front of us. I was in stage mode as we lost a lot of seconds and we needed to get some time back."
"It was ok for us, we have seen one car next to the road."
"We went wide in one junction, so we need to reverse."
"It was pretty good, but we have spun in one corner. It was pretty good speed, no drama, I am happy."
"Oh my god, completely crazy, absolutely no grip. I almost crashed two or three times on the beginning, so I stayed more calm later."
"We have problem with shifting, especially when shifting down, we had problems. We were driving for 20 kms with this problem."
"Stage was too difficult, we completely didnt have grip. I dont know, if the problem is with setup. But we are here, tomorrow is completely different day."
"The grip is too terrible. No grip. It was good stage for us, we were trying to do clean line."
"I liked this stage, it was too much slippery sometimes. Feeling was good, only too much sliding."
"It was hot, it was dusty. We were driving in the dust of previous cars, but it was ok for us."
"Amazing stage. Really incredible. We did one mistake. I didnt expected it should be so slippery, but it was good fun."
"Maximum cleaning. It is like Ogier, full cleaning. Not a bad run for us, but we were cleaning a lot."
"Lot of sliding, lot of road cleaning. I stalled in one hairpin. But it is ok, today is over. Tomorrow it will be more rough."
"We went off the road, return was like cross country. Front of the car is damaged."
SS1
"In first corner tyre went of the rim. Now we have zero spare..."
It was good, more grip than I expected. Now we have 30 kms long stage in front of us, we will be second on the road.
I was little bit nervous, it is first special stage of the rally.
It was good fun. Good opening up.
It is nice stage, but we didnt started so good, pacenotes were not perfect.
Good stage, good warm up for us. We wanted to keep the tyres for next stage. But good fun for spectators.
It was nice track, we have enjoyed it.
It was big fun. I drive first time the stage like this. We do many mistakes, but real rally starts on second stage.
This stage is only for fun. It was only wake up for us. It is only small thing for today, we are waiting for next stage.
The rear of the car doesnt have so much tracktion, but it was not bad.
We took it quite easy, we wanted to save tyres for SS 2.
It was really good fun. We were waiting for a long time, rally finally started. It was clean run, no drama. Rally will really start on stage two.
Not so good start, too slippery, we were too wide in some places.
Everything well, only lot of dust.
Yes, quite nice warm up. No problems, good stage for us.
Feeling with the car is ok, good start.
puncture
puncture