The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crews of François Delecour/Daniel Grataloup and Alister McRae/David Senior finished the second leg of the Acropolis Rally in 12th and 13th positions respectively after a hard day of inter-team battling that saw the duo swap positions three times.

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

Of the original 84 entrants, just 59 took the re-start this morning, a surprisingly low amount considering the fact that drivers are claiming the roads to be smoother and less demanding than previous years. For those who remained, the day started bright and early, the crews leaving Parc Ferme in Lilea-Parnassos at 07:15 hrs ready to tackle another scheduled six special stages and 158.76 competitive kilometres to the north and northeast of Itea.

However, the wake-up call was even earlier for the Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crews. At midnight last night, the team hotel was evacuated for an hour and a half after a laundry fire enveloped the building in smoke and six fire engines were called to the scene. Daniel Grataloup, the consummate professional, nevertheless appeared outside the hotel in record time, fully dressed in racing overalls with his rally bag and vital legs two and three pace notes intact!

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

François Delecour and Daniel Grataloup have been fighting hard, despite a slow start to the day, doubtless due to their interrupted night. "I was sleeping a little bit this morning!" said François. "Generally it’s been a good day with no problems and we’ve had an interesting fight with Alister. Because of our road position, the times have been very close, although he had a slight advantage being one car behind, and that has made a difference today. We went on a big attack on the last two stages, maybe too big because it was hot and we had very high tyre wear. Maybe we should have taken the harder compound. Tomorrow’s another day and we’ll be attacking all the way to the end - although I’m sure Alister will slow down because he realises he won’t be able to catch me!"

McRae, who started the day 11th, has also had a trouble-free run but he and co-driver David Senior were disappointed with the cancellation of stage 10 for safety reasons, which they considered to suit the Lancer Evolution well.

"We’ve had another clean run, a good day with no problems other than on the last stage when I got caught behind Toshihiro Arai who’d stopped to change a puncture", said Alister. "François got past him while he was stopped, but we then got caught in his dust. Both of us have been driving one hundred percent today and the times have been very close. In general we’ve dropped back from the other cars because of our position on the road and therefore cleaning the surface for everyone behind, but we’ll carry on pushing as hard as possible".

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr.N T. Petalidis / I. Samartzis