acropolis rally final day stages 16-18

Stage 16.
Stage 16 saw the rally lead with Ogier who went 6.2s faster than his team mate Sebastien Loeb in SS16.
He was now in the lead with 6.1s

We pushed very hard on this one,” said Ogier. “We had a good drive and we were happy with this stage. We will have to drive well in the next one also because six seconds is not enough to win.”

Sebastien Loeb reported at the stage end
“I have done a perfect stage, no mistakes and was flat out everywhere. But road cleaning makes the difference and we have no chance to do anything else.”

Mikko Hirvonen moved further away from Petter Solberg and closer to Sebastien Loeb with a fastest time on stage 16.
“We’re getting close and I will try,” said Hirvonen. “We found some
more traction with the car, maybe that has made the difference.”

His team mate Latvala set the 3rd fastest time.

times for SS16
SS16

1. Mikko Hirvonen 12:33.7
2. Sébastien Ogier +1.1
3. Jari-Matti Latvala +1.3
4. Petter Solberg +4.9
5. Evgeny Novikov +7.1
6. Sébastien Loeb +7.3
7. Mads Ostberg +17.4
8. Henning Solberg +26.6

Stage 17
A third fastest time for Sebastien Ogier sees him take a 10.5s lead into the powerstage after posting a time 4.4s faster than team-mate Sébastien Loeb.
Mikko Hirvonen narrowed the gap between himself and championship rival Sebastien Loeb by setting the 2nd fastest time 0.2s slower than his team mate Jari-Matti Latvala.
Hirvonen’s team-mate  was quickest through the stage,his third fastest time of the day.



stage 17 times

1. Jari-Matti Latvala 8:04.5
2. Mikko Hirvonen +0.2
3. Sébastien Ogier +0.6
4. Sébastien Loeb +5.0
5. Petter Solberg +5.3
6. Evgeny Novikov +6.2
7. Mads Ostberg +8.4
8. Henning Solberg +12.2

The powerstage !



The Acropolis powerstage saw Sebastien Ogier win The Acropolis rally and taken away makimum points by winning the powerstage by 0.009s over his team mate Sebastien Loeb who settled for 2nd place on his 100th podium finish of his career.
Mikko Hirvonen was 0.5s faster than Ogier at the first timing split but had to settle for third after completing the stage with a damaged right-rear tyre. The Finn said: “I really tried to push hard and tried all the way to the end.”
He took away the last point to be won on the powerstage.

Petter Solberg finished the powerstage and the acropolis rally in 4th place despite a flawless drive on the first day of the rally.

Jari-Matti Latvala’s hopes of winning the Power Stage were dashed when he had to tackle the stage with a broken rear roll bar on his Car, which occurred on the previous stage.

Kimi Raikkonen completed the powerstage 6th fastest and said he lost time running wide on two
corners.
Matthew Wilson reported a possible recurrence of the misfire that slowed him
on day two.

POWESTAGE TIMES

Pos	No	Driver	Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	2	S. OGIER	2:22.7	0.0	0.0
2.	1	S. LOEB	2:22.7	0.0	0.0
3.	3	M. HIRVONEN	2:23.1	+0.4	+0.4
4.	11	P. SOLBERG	2:24.0	+0.9	+1.3
5.	4	J. LATVALA	2:25.1	+1.1	+2.4
6.	8	K. RÄIKKÖNEN	2:26.1	+1.0	+3.4
7.	15	H. SOLBERG	2:26.1	0.0	+3.4
8.	6	M. ØSTBERG	2:26.4	+0.3	+3.7
9.	18	E. NOVIKOV	2:26.7	+0.3	+4.0
10.	5	M. WILSON	2:28.3	+1.6	+5.6

OVERALL ACROPOLIS RALLY RESULTS

Pos	No	Driver		Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	2	S. OGIER	M	4:04:44.3	0.0	0.0
2.	1	S. LOEB	M	4:04:54.8	+10.5	+10.5
3.	3	M. HIRVONEN	M	4:04:57.8	+3.0	+13.5
4.	11	P. SOLBERG	M	4:05:23.1	+25.3	+38.8
5.	15	H. SOLBERG		4:10:09.0	+4:45.9	+5:24.7
6.	5	M. WILSON	M	4:11:39.0	+1:30.0	+6:54.7
7.	8	K. RÄIKKÖNEN	M	4:13:13.7	+1:34.7	+8:29.4
8.	25	J. HANNINEN	S	4:16:19.0	+3:05.3	+11:34.7
9.	4	J. LATVALA	M	4:17:53.1	+1:34.1	+13:08.8
10.	9	D. KUIPERS	M	4:19:54.4	+2:01.3	+15:10.1