Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Rally Acropolis

The Rally Acropolis two weeks ago saw Marcus Grönholm extend his lead in the World Rally Championship a few more points over Sebastien Loeb.


Subaru’s Petter Solberg finished third, and Chris Atkinson 6th. I had previously written that the rest of the season would turn into a long test for the team. But with reports that Xavier Pons will start driving a third car for the team, it seems that team might be thinking the Pons will be driving to gather more data for the team, while hopefully the other two drivers continue to improve.


Greece is a historically car-damaging rally, and this event was not much different. Chris Atkinson actually led the rally during the first day, until he hit a rock in the morning of the second day. Petter Solberg also was in second, until he suffered from a broken damper that brought him down the leader board. By the third day, both Subaru drivers were merely looking to consolidate their positions.


Going into the long summer break that is a defining characteristic of the WRC, the season leader boards look as follows with Ford continuing to run away with the constructor’s championship. In the driver’s standings, Grönholm also edged a little further away in the points over Loeb, while Miko Hirvonen still has a strong hold on third. If Subaru continues to improve its perform as it did in Greece, there is a slight possibility that Solberg might end up fighting for third with Hirvonen instead of battling with his brother, Henning, and Dani Sordo for fourth.


Position.

Constructor

Points

1

FORD

114

2

CITROEN

86

3

SUBARU

43

4

STOBART

41

5

OMV KRONOS

27

6

MUNCHI S

1


Position.

Pilote

Points

1

M. Gronholm (FIN)

65

2

S. Loeb (F)

56

3

M. Hirvonen (FIN)

49

4

D. Sordo (SP)

28

5

P. Solberg (N)

26

6

H. Solberg (N)

24

7

C. Atkinson (AUS)

15

8

J. Latvala (FIN)

12


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