One stage, Agii Theodori, measures a monstrous 48.88km and uses a combination of familiar sections and unknown roads. It is the longest special stage used so far this year, eclipsing the 46.02km St Pierreville – Antraigues test used on Rallye Monte Carlo.
The Olympic Equestrian Centre – which hosted the horse racing and horseback riding contests during the 2004 Olympic Games – will play host to the rally headquarters, the service park, and the ceremonial start and finish. Within the horse racing track a 3.3km gravel Super Special Stage has been designed. This stage, which will open the rally at 1900hrs on Thursday 31 May and close it at 1430hrs on Sunday 3 June, has a mirror-image layout and the two-driver, head-to-head format will whip the passionate Greek rally fans into a frenzy.
The scheduled SS9/20, Imittos, has been cancelled at late notice and so 21 of the planned 23 special stages will now be run. The organisers have altered the route accordingly and the competitive distance for the rally is 334.44km. The crews will also tackle 1237.89km of road driving, meaning the overall event distance is 1572.33km.
FIA World Rally Championship news:
Marcus Gronholm re-took the lead in the 2007 FIA World Rally drivers' championship following his win on the Rally d’Italia Sardegna two weeks ago. Gronholm is now seven points up on
Sebastien Loeb, who failed to score after his error in SS13.
Mikko Hirvonen lies third, 4 points behind the Frenchman.
In the Manufacturers' championship there was no change at the top - although the
BP Ford WRT did increase its lead quite substantially over
Citroen, from 9 points to 21 points. The
Stobart M-Sport RT meanwhile consolidated third, now 3 points up on
Subaru.
The big news following the event in Sardinia concerned OMV Kronos Citroen’s Daniel Carlsson, who has been reprimanded by the FIA after he withdrew before the start of SS1 due to budgetary problems.
