"Everything went smoothly and was very satisfying," said Stohl, after completing around 120 kilometres. "We didn’t encounter the brake problems from Sardinia, but then we did the testing with a different Peugeot 307 WRC. My race car had been completely disassembled meanwhile, in order to find the problem."
As for the Acropolis itself, Stohl has competed on the event eight times to date, although this year the route is completely different as the rally base has been shifted to Athens.
"Of course, the road conditions and the character of the special stages are very similar to recent years. But as for really knowing even one singular stage, I don’t [now that the rally base has changed], which makes the recce extremely important," he added. "You have to have to be highly focussed and can’t rely on pace notes from recent years."
Stohl’s team-mate,
Henning Solberg meanwhile, who crashed out while lying third in Sardinia two weeks ago, is determined to do well. "We have already proven in Argentina that we have no problems with new rallies and can be very fast," added the Norwegian. "And we like gravel. Following the streak of bad luck in Argentina and Sardinia all we want is a good result."
Stobart VK Ford:
[
Matthew Wilson, car #9 and Kosti Katajamaki, car #10]
The Stobart VK team will revert to a two-car line-up in Greece, after having fielded three cars in Sardinia.
As normal, Matthew Wilson will drive the #9 car and he is keen to get a 'solid result' ahead of the ten-week summer break. The event though won’t be easy as it is one of the toughest in the series and as such his Focus will be suitably modified to try and protect it from the fast rock-strewn stages.
