PWRC: Second win for Aigner.

Andreas Aigner fought his way back to take his second PWRC win of the year on the Acropolis Rally last weekend, the third round in the 2008 FIA Production Car World Rally Championship.

Aigner had a bad start to the Athens-based event and dropped time on the opening loop on Friday when he broke the intercooler on his Red Bull Rally Team-run Lancer Evo following a spin in the very first stage. That left him in 20th place, but he managed to bounce back, ending day one in P7 and then taking the lead on Saturday afternoon.

Despite another problem on Sunday morning, when differential issues left him struggling on the first loop, he eventually took the win by just under a minute. The result moves him into the lead in the PWRC standings, six points ahead of Jari Ketomaa.

"I can't believe this!" he reflected. "I never thought this was possible. Again, today was all about finding the right speed and the right pace. I did that. It's such a difficult event. If you go too slowly, you can easily damage the car as much as if you are going to fast.

"It has certainly not been an easy event, but to win is just fantastic - more than I expected. I have to pay tribute to the Mitsubishi as well. This is a Group N car, but it survived some incredibly big rocks and difficult roads."

Aigner's team-mate Bernardo Sousa meanwhile took the runners-up spot, after Martin Rauam was excluded by the stewards due to a brake disc infringement.

Sousa, like Aigner, had a scare on the final day, when he damaged his suspension - but the Portuguese star got away with it and took a podium finish on only his third WRC event.

"We damaged the rear left suspension on the last long stage so we were really lucky to get to the end but this is a really good finish for the team," he added. "At the start of the season I dreamed of scoring podiums so this is really good, and it is three finishes in three rallies too."

Armindo Araujo was third, another 30 seconds or so further back, having lost time with engine problems on the first loop on day one and then with suspension issues on Saturday afternoon.

"I'm glad to get to the end of this rally. It's been one of those events. We've shown good speed, but this wasn't the one for us," he stated, prior to being bumped up from fourth to third.

Further down the order, Fumio Nutahara was fourth, slipping behind Araujo on the final day after he bolted on some new suspension parts and was not quite up to speed with their effect on the car's handling.

"It was a very tough rally, very difficult," noted the multiple Japanese champion. "There were many rocks. Sometimes in the stages you needed to be fast and sometimes to slow down and I didn't manage to balance that. The result is good for us though, and I am satisfied."

Evgeny Aksakov was fifth, albeit almost 5 minutes further back, to ensure Mitsubishi locked out the top five. The Russian was making his debut in Greece and opted for a careful approach, experiencing no problems, to eventually reach the end and score his first PWRC points.

"It was very difficult but we liked it a lot. It was interesting to discover new stages. The organisation and everything else was good. We are satisfied with the result," he stated.

Evgeniy Vertunov came in sixth, the only Subaru driver to get points, with Juho Hanninen, who had led early on, one spot further back, having re-started on day three under the SupeRally. Juho had great pace and won 13 of the 20 stages, but steering problems on Saturday afternoon proved costly.

"The rally was okay. I had a bit of bad luck yesterday with the car. Some stages were too rough for a Gr. N car on the second run. I am disappointed," noted the Finn.

Loris Baldacci took the final PWRC point with Amjad Farrah ninth and Naren Kumar tenth.

15 PWRC runners were classified in total and in addition to Rauam, who was excluded, 11 other runners failed to make it to the end, most noticeably Nasser Al-Attiyah, who led until suspension problems in SS8, as well as Toshi Arai, Patrik Sandell, Mirco Baldacci, Uwe Nittel and Andrej Jereb.

Gabor Mayer was unable to start the event as he was too sick to attend.

The FIA Production Car World Rally Championship now continues in Turkey in two weeks time.