Dani Sordo, 3rd before the last day of the Acropolis Rally

the Belgian pilot Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20) the last day of Greece’s Acropolis Rallytenth exam of worldat the head of the standings, after showing himself to be the strongest this Saturday in a rough third day marked by the abandonment of the leader until now, the Frenchman Sébastien Loeb.

Loeb, who led the standings by 19 seconds at Neuville after a dispute in the first special of the day, had to retire due to problems with the alternator belt.

“It was disappointing. We were running well and we were leading with a 19-second lead, but at the end of the first stage, before the stop point, I saw the low battery alarm. When I stopped the car, the engine. stopped by itself. Tried I started it, but it had no battery,” Loeb explained in remarks collected by L’Equipe newspaper.

However, Loeb was not the only one to suffer the hardships of the Hellenic test, as the young Finnish driver Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota GR Yaris) waved goodbye to any chance of becoming world champion in Greece with serious damage to his car after hit a tree. .

An accident that condemned Rovanperä, who had to beat the Estonian Ott Tänak (Hyundai i20) by at least 18 points to be crowned champion in Greece, in nineteenth position, more than 15 minutes behind the Estonian, occupying the second place in the absence of the last day of work.

Disasters and more disasters escaped Belgian Thierry Neuville, who was not only the most solid, but also the fastest, after winning three of the six specials held this Saturday.

A regularity that allowed Neuville to close the day in first position with an advantage of 27.9 seconds over the Estonian Ott Tanaksecond, and 52.9 in Spanish Dani is deaf (Hyundai i20), which closed the day in third place.

The Cantabrian driver, who won the day’s penultimate special, will be looking for his third podium of the course in Greece, after coming third this season in the Portugal and Sardinia rallies.