The Hyundai and Toyota set the same time on the Greek warm-up stage
Photography by Hyundai
Words by Luke Barry
Thierry Neuville and Takamoto Katsuta shared the fastest time on the shakedown stage for Acropolis Rally Greece.
The 2.2-mile Lygaria test was a small sample ahead of a hot and sweltering weekend in Greece, where temperatures are tipped to climb to 40C, and was particularly vital for the M-Sport drivers who didn’t have a pre-event test ahead of round seven.
Yet Josh McErlean set the fastest run on the first pass of shakedown, much to his own surprise.
“Not so bad! Em… yeah,” he said. “It’s a long weekend, so we’ll be realistic. To get to Sunday is an accomplishment on its own let alone get a result, so we’ll take it steady. I don’t think we can do any more of this.”
The Irishman fell to sixth after everyone had completed their second run.
World champion Neuville has won Acropolis twice in the past, including last year – which still stands as his most recent WRC victory. He’ll be hoping his fastest time on shakedown, a 2m37.9s, is a sign of things to come – but that the hanging dust he encountered wasn’t.
“It’s going to be a very rough weekend out there – anything can happen,” Neuville predicted. “So we need to have a decent approach, get through without trouble, and without dust as well.
“It’s really tricky and dangerous like this so I really hope the people are listening to us and give us some more time because tomorrow will be a real nightmare.”
Neuville’s fellow world champions Ott Tänak (third fastest) and Kalle Rovanperä (fourth fastest) also expressed their desire for cars to start at larger intervals throughout the weekend.
Tänak said: “It’s Greece, so nothing is predictable here I guess. Already the shakedown is fully in the dust, so no chance. Good luck for us tomorrow!”
Sébastien Ogier set the fifth best time on shakedown on a weekend where he’ll be looking to reverse his recent poor fortune in Greece – he was 0.1s faster than McErlean on the stage.
World championship leader Elfyn Evans will again be handicapped by running first on the road, but a rough rally like this could present an opportunity for him. He was seventh quickest.
“It’s looking like a pretty tough weekend ahead obviously,” Evans said. “Of course [we have the] usual challenge with this position on the road, but I think getting to the end without trouble will also be quite challenging. So looking for a clean event with hopefully some good speed.”
After recent sticky form, Adrien Fourmaux vied “the approach will be the Greece approach” this weekend (calculated) as he went eighth quickest on shakedown ahead of M-Sport pair Grégoire Munster and Mãrtiņš Sesks.
Sami Pajari was 11th having set just one competitive run.
“This is one of the most challenging rallies from my past experience, always a lot of things going on,” he said. “But to be honest I think here you must be a bit lucky to finish good.”
Jan Solans was the quickest of the WRC2 runners in his Toyota.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Acropolis Rally Greece, Acropolis Rally Greece 2025, Shakedown, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date June 26, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/06/TtYU6yDh-2025GREECE_VT_064-780x520.jpg June 26, 2025
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