Rally Acropolis – before it starts
Petter Solberg is currently 2nd in the Championship as we head to Greece and the Acropolis Rally, also know as The rally of gods.
High temperatures, dust and rocky roads are what drivers can expect when the Rally Acropolis gets underway at the end of this week. 22 stages and a total of 409 competitive kilometres will be waiting for the crews. The qualifying stage opens it all on Thursday morning, where the quickest guy gets to be the first to pick the opening start-position. In the afternoon they head into Athens for an autograph-session, before the first stage gets underway in the evening. Friday comes with two remote-services in Itea, before the day ends in Loutraki. Rally Acropolis finished with a power stage on Sunday afternoon.
Petter has a strong record in Greece. He scored his first career podium there in 2001, won in 2004 and has five podium finishes from 11 starts.
“It’s the roughest round of the season, but we’ll see if it proves to be the toughest,” he said. “There are many big rocks in Greece and that’s what makes the rally so tricky. I learned a lot about rough road driving when Kenya’s Safari Rally was part of the championship, and that’s useful for Greece. You have to be smart with your driving in this type of event.
“The rough roads and heat are also hard for the tyres. But Michelin’s tyres have been strong this year so I’m confident they’ll be good here also. I had some bad luck on the last two rounds, but still scored good championship points after driving at 110 per cent to climb back up the order. Hopefully I can have a clean run and keep the points coming,” added the 37-year-old Norwegian.
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