Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart A. McRae / D. Senior

The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crews of Alister McRae/David Senior and François Delecour/Daniel Grataloup finished the opening leg of the 49th Acropolis Rally, round seven of the FIA World Rally Championship, in 11th and 12th positions respectively and separated by just one second.

A ceremonial start at the Zappion Palace in the centre of Athens heralded the beginning of the event last night, thousands of spectators pouring into the city to cheer on the 84 competing contenders. Today however, the crews headed into the mountains north of the port of Itea for six special stages and 136.35 kilometres of competition based around the service park in Parnassos. Searing temperatures, reportedly topping 30 degrees in the shade, once again confirmed this as one of the toughest events in the series, underlining the importance of peak fitness in such extreme heat.

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart driver Alister McRae has maintained a steady pace and he and co-driver David Senior have had a trouble-free run in their Lancer Evolution.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart A. McRae / D. Senior

"No problems at all", commented Alister. "The first two stages weren’t typically Greek; the first one had a couple of rough places but the second was very smooth and fast. As we saw in Cyprus, the car is good in the faster sections, but we seem to be losing a bit of time in the slower twisty stuff. I’m driving as fast as I can and we’re nearly there in terms of times, just not quite. The car is basically the same specification as Argentina, so we knew we wouldn’t be at the front of the pace, but I’m happy with where we are. We dropped a bit of time in the last stage but I’m not entirely sure why. It might have been that we chose too hard a tyre compound, but overall I’m pleased to have had a trouble-free day".

Team-mates François Delecour and Daniel Grataloup have steadily increased their pace, an overcautious approach in stage one dropping them time and problems in stage three hampering an all-out assault by the Frenchmen. However, a flat-out approach in the final stage resulted in one of their best times of the day.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart F. Delecour / D. Grataloup

"I’m not so happy with the start I made", said François. "For the first 10 kilometres of stage one I drove far too cautiously and slowly - like I was in the Safari Rally, but the speeds are actually like we’re in Corsica. We then hit a rock in stage three and when we stopped at the end of the stage to change the tyre, we realised the reservoir in the shock absorber had come loose and was just held on by the hydraulic pipe. We fixed it, but I think the reservoir was still damaged, or there was a leak, because it still wasn’t working right in stage four and the car was too sideways. I also had a strange feeling with the power-steering in stage six; a very strange problem because you would normally expect this to happen on slow corners, but it was happening on fast corners".

Adding to their comments, Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart team manager Derek Dauncey said: "We’ve seen only one retirement today, which is quite unusual for the Acropolis, however we’ve had a trouble-free day and both drivers have recorded encouraging times. The cars have shown themselves to be very good in the rough conditions, and we will see how the road positions affect us on the second leg, but we’re happy with today’s performance".

While the Acropolis Rally is not a round of the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship, 12 contenders entered in Group N machinery. After the opening leg of competition just seven remain, all of which are Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions or Carisma GTs. Local driver Theodoros Petalidis leads the category in his Evolution VII and has nearly three minutes in hand to Belgian David Sterckx. Third is held by another Greek, Dimitris Nassoulas.

Meanwhile…

Estonian Markko Märtin snatched the lead from the outset and the Ford driver has never relinquished his advantage throughout the day to take the overnight No.1 slot for the first time in his career. Behind him, ’Fast Freddy’ Loix holds second position for Hyundai, overhauling team-mate Armin Schwarz, who dropped to fifth after incurring penalties in service when a bracket on the water pump broke. The German subsequently fell to eighth in the final stage of the day. Third position is held by a charging Colin McRae (Ford), the Scot losing time earlier in the day when he caught Petter Solberg (Subaru) and then overshot a junction in stage three. Harri Rovanperä leads the Peugeot assault in fourth position with Carlos Sainz (Ford) fifth and reigning World Champion Richard Burns (Peugeot) rounds off the top six. Thomas Rådström (Citroën) was leading the team’s assault in sixth position until the final stage when a wrong tyre choice dropped him to 10th. Tommi Mäkinen (Subaru) was the only leading retirement, his fifth early exit of the season. The Finn was forced out when a wheel came off the Impreza in stage six. Other crews to experience problems include Gilles Panizzi (Peugeot) who broke a shock absorber in SS5, Petter Solberg (Subaru) who spun in the opening stage, which dropped him to 27th position, and then hit something in stage five, damaging the right rear wheel and necessitating a complete change of components in service. He now holds 17th overall after a disappointing day for the Japanese manufacturer.

Still to come…

The second leg of the Acropolis Rally starts from Parnassos at 07:15 hrs on Saturday and takes the contenders to the north and northeast of Itea. The route covers a total of six special stages and 158.76 competitive kilometers and includes the first run at the longest stage of the rally, the 37.16 kilometre run through Elatia.

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION AFTER LEG 1