2026 WRC Round 8, Acropolis Rally Greece — Thursday: Ogier wins Athens super special, leads Katsuta by one second

The 2026 Acropolis Rally Greece officially began on Thursday evening at Athens’ Ellinikon Sports Park. Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais set a time of 1m 38.2s on the side-by-side city super special stage, the fastest of the 12 Rally1 crews, to lead Takamoto Katsuta by 1.0 seconds. Neuville was provisionally third, 1.1 seconds behind; Pajari and Solberg were both 1.2 seconds adrift, in fourth and fifth respectively. Unlike the daytime shakedown, SS1 counted towards the rally’s overall standings, so Ogier does take a slender lead into Friday.

The short stage featured a smooth paved surface, in stark contrast to the rough gravel mountain roads awaiting over the next three days. Spectators in Athens watched crews corner side by side, while the drivers’ first priority was to bring their cars and tyres to the finish intact: taking risks to claw back a few tenths on a stage lasting less than two minutes could undermine the preparations for the entire rally. Ogier had earlier set the second-fastest Toyota time in shakedown near Loutraki and went one place better in the evening’s competitive stage, but these were only limited indications from two different parts of Thursday’s programme.

Katsuta has already won in Kenya and Croatia this year and entered this event second in the drivers’ standings on 131 points, 20 behind Evans. Finishing the city stage one second behind Ogier gives him a useful initial position to take into Friday’s mountain stages, but does not mean the same order will hold on gravel. Solberg and Pajari set identical times, yet will face an entirely different set of conditions, from road position to tyre response. Evans was sixth on the short stage, 1.4 seconds behind; his real challenge will be opening the road on unswept gravel as the championship leader.

Hyundai driver Neuville was third, having just delivered the team’s first win of the season in Portugal in May. Fourmaux was seventh and Sordo eighth, with the three Hyundais covered by 1.4 seconds. On a city stage, those differences say more about each driver’s lines and corner-exit efficiency than they do about who will be better suited to long stages in high temperatures. M-Sport Ford’s Armstrong was ninth, Sesks tenth and McErlean eleventh, with Serderidis in twelfth. The Rally1 field totals 12 cars at this event, a larger entry than at most rounds.

After Thursday’s short stage, the cars did not head straight along the road to the next stage. The event’s itinerary instead sends crews and cars by ferry across the Gulf of Corinth to Itea before they head into the mountains of central Greece on Friday. This sea transfer is an important part of this year’s route overhaul and also makes the distance between the Loutraki service park and Friday’s stages a different logistical proposition from a typical event. Friday’s six stages total 129.22 kilometres, making it the longest competitive day of the rally, with only remote service at midday. Crews suffering a puncture or suspension damage on an early stage will find it difficult to recover as quickly as they could after the short stage.

Ogier established a lead of just one second on the short stage, and crews will still have to deal with loose stones, dust and possible ruts on Friday. Following its sweep of the top four places in Japan, Toyota currently leads Hyundai by 127 points in the manufacturers’ standings; however, Greece’s special stages generally inflict more direct damage on tyres than Thursday’s smooth asphalt. Neuville’s position immediately behind two Toyota drivers provides a clear comparison in the manufacturers’ contest from the very first competitive stage. Whether Ogier can retain the lead will hinge on the first long gravel stage after the ferry transfer, rather than treating his 1m 38.2s as a verdict on the pace for the entire rally.

Later in the itinerary, Saturday’s mountain roads in the Peloponnese include sections not used since 2013, while Sunday’s second pass through Loutraki serves as the Power Stage. With huge differences in surfaces and distances from one day to the next, the very short opening stage serves more to establish an initial overall order. Thursday’s meaningful information is that all twelve top-class crews completed the opening stage, with just 1.4 seconds covering the top six. That makes Friday’s first gravel stage very likely to reshuffle the overall standings.

Rally1 overall standings after Thursday’s stage