Sebastien Ogier made the most of running behind Sebastien Loeb over the final five stages of the Acropolis Rally to claim his third victory in the world championship this season.
Ogier began day three of the punishing gravel event 2.2 seconds behind his Citroen team-mate Loeb, having dropped time on Saturday’s final stage due to a combination of hanging dust clouds and his eagerness to gain a more advantageous road position for the final-day battle. He appeared to have benefitted from being able to drive over the cleaner lines created by Loeb through the loose surface gravel when he moved into the lead by 0.1 seconds after Sunday’s opening stage. Loeb fought back with a faster time through the next run, which gave the seven-time world champion top spot once more by the same amount, heading to the mid-morning service in Loutraki. With Loeb’s road position proving more of a hindrance on stages 16 and 17, the faster Ogier was able to take a lead of 10.5 seconds with just the Power Stage left to run.
The Power Stage is a new concept in the WRC this season and awards bonus points to the fastest three drivers. Measuring just 4 kilometres in length, the new Loutraki test used the start of the Nea Politia night stage and a section of the Aghii Theordori stage to run a spectacle for fans watching live on television throughout the world. Sebastien Ogier won the Acropolis Rally closing Power Stage to claim his fifth victory in the world championship and his third of 2011. Driving his Citroen DS3, Ogier was 9 thousandths of a second faster than his teammate Sebastien Loeb, who ran second.
Mikko Hirvonen who was 0.5 seconds faster than Ogier at the first timing split fell back and finished third in his Ford Fiesta RS after completing the stage with a damaged right-rear tyre. Latvala’s hopes of winning the Power Stage were also dashed when he had to run the rough and difficult stage with a broken rear roll bar on the factory Fiesta while Greek driver Lambros Athanassoulas got his Ford Fiesta on to two wheels when he clipped a bank, but made it through the rest of the special power stage unscathed. On his way to victory, Ogier had caused controversy by nursing his Citroen and dropping quite a distance behind Loeb to avoid the Frenchman’s excessive dust on Saturday’s night stage.
Ogier bagged three bonus points as well for going fastest on the event-closing Power Stage by a scant margin of 0.009 seconds over Loeb, which was his 100th podium finish in the WRC. Citroen’s one-two finish means the factory has a 55 point lead over Ford in the manufacturers’ championship. Mikko Hirvonen’s Ford Fiesta RS, closed to within 2.6s of Loeb starting the Power Stage but had to settle for third.
Latvala was quickest on four of Sunday’s five stages in the second works Ford, but mechanical failures restricted the Finn to ninth in the end, one place behind Super 2000 World Rally Championship winner and countryman Juho Hanninen. Petter Solberg, who held a commanding lead after day one, finished fourth in his privateer Citroen DS3.