Preview: Acropolis Rally of Greece.

The 2006 FIA World Rally Championship stays in the Mediterranean for round eight in the series' as the circus heads to Greece for the 53rd running of the Acropolis Rally.

The event, which is the last before the mid-season ten week break, will also play host to the fourth round of the 2006 Production Car WRC.

The route includes 18 special stages and 355.62 competitive kilometres. Legs one and two will feature two loops of three stages separated by a midday service halt, with two loops of two tests on leg three.

There will be two passes through the Superspecial in the Olympic stadium built for the 2004 games on Thursday and Sunday, with an expected crowd of more than 60,000 fans. The podium finish is scheduled for 1530hrs in the stadium on Sunday.

Special notes:

There has been a major change in the event's format for 2006. In previous years the rally was based in central Greece around the town of Lamia, 200km north of Athens. This year the service park, Super Special stage and rally HQ will be located at the Athens Olympic stadium complex, making the rally the only event to be based entirely in a capital city.

The route takes crews to the hills north and west of Athens, with no test further than 80km from the service park.

The stages combine roads used in previous years with new stretches of freshly-regraded gravel, however with large rocks littering the roads, the event retains its rough, abrasive character.

With average speeds higher than those in Sardinia and temperatures approaching 40?C, Greece is one of the toughest events of the year. Despite though that the manufacturer teams must use the same chassis, engine and transmission in Greece as was used in Sardinia.

FIA World Rally Championship news:

Sebastien Loeb extended his lead at the top of the 2006 FIA World Rally drivers' championship from 21 points to 31 points following his win in Sardinia two weeks ago - his fifth win of the season and his fifth in a row. Marcus Gronholm meanwhile remains second, despite not scoring in Italy, while 2005 Junior champion, Daniel Sordo stays third, having increased his tally from 24 to 30 points - five less than Gronholm.

In the Manufacturers' series Kronos Citroen still lead, but the margin between them and BP Ford went up from 12 points to 20.

News from the Manufacturers' teams:

Manufacturer 1.

Kronos Total Citroen:

[Sebastien Loeb, car #1 and Xavier Pons, car #2]

Kronos team boss, Marc van Dalen has said that his team have done a lot of work ahead of the Acropolis Rally in order to ensure they remain competitive and ahead of the chief rivals. Speaking in the countdown to the event, he added that Marcus Gronholm's pace on day one in Sardinia, when he managed to pull out over 30 seconds on team leader, Sebastien Loeb, despite only running one place lower in the order, had given them a jolt.

"I think Marcus' performance was very useful: it stopped us from relaxing! In the event where we would tend to think that we were the best and imagine that it's all there, this is a good kick," he noted. "We have done a lot of work since Sardinia and we hope to fight for a win. But the championship is really long and everyone experiences good times and bad times. We have to take profit of the first ones and target 'big points' if we're a bit less successful."

Loeb meanwhile, who could equal Carlos Sainz's record of 26 FIA World Rally Championship victories this weekend if he again comes out top, conceded that Gronholm's pace in Sardinia was a concern.

"I wasn't on the right pace on SS1 [in Italy]. However, for the rest of the loop, I pushed really hard without succeeding to reverse the trend. OK, Marcus benefited from my lines but the gap cannot only be justified by that," admitted Loeb. "We have already noticed in the past that we aren't so good on slippery roads. The process to improve that and other parameters is now important.

"For Greece, the terrain and the tyres change... we will have at our disposal brand new BFGoodrich tyres which should be very useful, like in Sardinia after the second loop of Friday where the tyres reached the wear limit. Of course Marcus has the same rubber but the efficiency also lies in the tyres-car package. Who will do best? We will have to wait and see at the next match..."

BP Ford:

[Marcus Gronholm, car #3 and Mikko Hirvonen, car #4.]

Marcus Gronholm has set his sights on adding to Ford's record on the Acropolis Rally. The M-Sport-run squad have traditionally done well in Greece in recent years and they took four consecutive victories from 2000 to 2003, something that earmarked the Focus as the dominant car on this event. Furthermore although Gronholm failed to score in Sardinia, after going out early on day two when he hit a rock while leading by around 30 seconds, he was extremely impressed with the pace of the Focus and believes they should be just as quick in Greece.

"My retirement in Italy was disappointing but the pace of the car on the opening morning was so good. It surprised me because it was a disadvantage for [Sebastien] Loeb to run first on the road in the loose gravel, but it wasn't that much better for me in second in the start order. I'm confident we can set the same kind of pace in Greece," predicted the Finn "The Focus has a strong history on this rally and it would be nice to add to its winning record."

Gronholm's team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen meanwhile has warned that the event will be extra challenging, now that it will be based around Athens, as opposed to Lamia. As such all the stages, except the super special stage in the Olympic Stadium, which will kick off the event and conclude it, will be different to 2005.

"The stages will be new for everyone, which will mean a hard recce preparing pace notes for the entire route," he explained. "We've been lucky though because many rallies this year have contained new sections so we're used to making fresh notes. But it will be challenging to drive on different roads, many of which I'm told will be rough. In those conditions we must think about the correct set-up to protect the car. It's important to raise the ride height and stiffen the suspension but as we haven't seen the stages yet, it's all guesswork until the recce."

Hirvonen has competed three times before on the Acropolis and did well in 2005 at the wheel of a privately-entered Focus when he led on the opening leg before eventually finishing fifth. That form and his second place finish in Sardinia, his best result ever in the WRC, has given him a big boost.

"After finishing second in Sardinia, I'm really excited about this rally. Despite the conditions, it's still a sprint rally so I will drive flat out from the start, but with an element of caution to avoid the rocks. Personally I feel well prepared," he concluded.

555 Subaru World Rally Team:

[Petter Solberg, car #5 and Chris Atkinson, car #6.]

Petter Solberg will become the youngest driver to notch up 100 starts, when he takes part in the Acropolis Rally. Of the current WRC field, only three have reached the 100 milestone, namely Marcus Gronholm, Harri Rovanpera and Manfred Stohl, the latter having recently joined the 100 club an the Rally Argentina.

Speaking prior to the event, the Norwegian noted that he is keen to get a memorable result, after a less than positive outing in Sardinia: "Of course I was disappointed not to have finished higher in Sardinia as we did have the pace when everything went well," he noted. "I never give up though and I'm going to Greece with the same goal I always have - to win. I enjoy the rally, I got my first podium there and this time it will be my 100th start. I want to make it a memorable one."

Subaru sporting director, Luis Moya meanwhile has insisted that Solberg and his team-mate, Chris Atkinson can both get an 'acceptable result'.

"We've shown on other challenging rallies, such as Mexico and Argentina, that we can perform well," he stated. "We got two podiums in difficult conditions on both these events as we found a good balance between durability and performance. In Sardinia too we demonstrated we could run at the top end of the field and were unfortunate not to finish higher than we did. Our goal now [in Greece] is to have an acceptable finish for both Petter and Chris. Petter could well finish in the top three, depending on how the event pans out. In Sardinia Chris followed the strategy, but a mistake on the last day dropped him down the order. His aim for Greece is to have a rally without errors and finish in the top six."

Atkinson is especially determined to deliver following his off on the final stage in Sardinia, which dropped him from fifth to tenth in the final classification. To date this season the Aussie has scored just eight points and he has yet to finish in the top five.

"I'm quite positive about Greece," he said. "I was happy with the improvements we found in the test we did in Greece earlier this month. We found a good set-up that worked well in Sardinia and we will use more or less the same again in Greece. We showed in Italy that we had the speed to get a good finish and score some points, in Greece we've got to follow this through. I'm aiming for a top six."

Manufacturer 2.

OMV Peugeot Norway WRT:

[Manfred Stohl, car #7 and Henning Solberg, car #8].

The OMV Peugeot WRT conducted a two-day pre-event test in the build-up to the Acropolis Rally recently, with Manfred Stohl in action on Saturday and Henning Solberg running on Monday.

"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.

"It's another rough rally and until we've done the recce we won't know how bad it is," he noted. "We've got a lot more protection on the car for this one as it is going to be that tough on the car. It's been a busy start to the season and I think everyone's looking forward to having a break before the next event. It will be good to get a solid result in Greece before the summer break and head to Germany on a high."

Kosti Katajamaki meanwhile will drive the second nominated car, as he did in Sardinia - and in Sweden back in February. The Finn had a disappointing outing on the Rally d'Italia Sardegna two weeks ago though, when he crashed out on day two while on course to take a solid top ten finish. The incident, which saw him roll the car twice before hitting a tree, unsurprisingly left the Focus heavily damaged. As such he will now use the 'third' car driven in Italy by Luis-Perez Companc.

"The last rally was not so good for me but now I am concentrating on Greece," he continued. "I have done the rally four times before but this year the stages are different. I think it was difficult getting back in the Focus after the long break from Sweden but it will be a lot better to start again in the Acropolis. We are hoping for a lot better result than last time."

Red Bull Skoda:

[Harri Rovanpera, car #11 and Andreas Aigner, car #12]

Red Bull Skoda were disappointed with their form on the last event and number one driver, Harri Rovanpera was especially frustrated on his gravel debut with the Fabia, after he was twice forced out with transmission problems. Although he was still classified at the finish and took a manufacturers' point, 20th place was not exactly the kind of result he had wanted. As such he is out to make a point in Greece.

"I need to start the rally very aggressively from day one," said the Finn. "The Sardinia result was a very unsatisfying one for me and I want to eradicate the team's bad gravel debut at any cost. I hope we'll find the proper set-up right away - that's imperative if we are to get a good result."

Red Bull Skoda team boss, Armin Schwarz added that the most important thing they will be doing pre-event is to try and solve the reliability issues that stopped Rovanpera twice in Sardinia.

"Preparation time is pretty sparse [with only a two week gap]," added the German, "but the most important thing is to get a grip on Harri's differential troubles."

Andreas Aigner meanwhile has split with his co-driver, Timo Gottschalk and will instead work with Klaus Wicha during the remainder of the season. A statement from the Austrian-based squad last week noted that the change was made by 'mutual consent of everyone concerned' and followed 'tension' and repeated 'disagreements' in the car between Aigner and Gottschalk.

Aigner is looking now forward to working with Wicha. Indeed the two have worked together before, most recently at the Rallye Monte Carlo, when Gottschalk was ill. Despite the upheaval though, the Austrian is keen to do as well as possible in Greece and put the experience on gravel he gained in Sardinia to good use.

"I guess the Greek stages should suit us more because they are hard and have less loose sand on the edge than those in Sardinia," he predicted. "Besides I am hoping for a good shakedown to get to grips with the set-up better than before. I'm already looking forward to working with my new co-driver Klaus Wicha, he's a genuine professional, I'm sure we'll form a good team."

Production Car WRC:

In the Production WRC the battle for the class honours looks set to be intense, with 15 of the 16 drivers contesting the series opting to compete in Greece - only the final round in New Zealand will have as strong a turn out.

Current championship leader, Nasser Al-Attiyah will be one of the pre-event favourites, having warmed-up by taking the win on the WRC candidate event in Jordan last weekend.

Reigning champion, Toshi Arai, Marcos Ligato, Sebastian Beltran and David Higgins should also be up there, while Fumio Nutahara is the one driver who won't be contesting this round.

Three drivers' had yet to get off the mark this season - namely Gabriel Pozzo, Takuma Kamada and Aki Teiskonen. The latter looked set to take fifth in Argentina back in April, his first event in this year's PCWRC, until a broken steering arm forced him out.

"I think this is a survival rally, like Cyprus, so we will take extra spare parts in the car," said Aki. "It will be like the Dakar but it means we should be able to make most repairs between stages. This year's rally has a completely new route as it is based in Athens and not further north too. I am quite happy about this because it means it will be new for everyone and so my lack of experience of the rally won't be so important. Not only do I not know this rally but I haven't had much experience of rough gravel events like Greece and Cyprus. The roads in Finland are much smoother!"

The OMV CEE WRT meanwhile have been forced to make a change for this event. Romanian driver, Bogdan Marisca had been schedule to compete in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII but the team was unable to get the necessary documentation from the Romanian motor sports committee, the ASN, which would have allowed him to drive. As such six-time Slovenian champion, Andrej Jereb, has been drafted it at short notice to fill the void.

"We tried everything but the ASN once again wasn't able to guarantee licence and clearance," explained Petrom Rally team manager, Paul Patrichi. "This would have meant risking the disqualification of the OMV CEE World Rally Team in this series and we couldn't do that."

For Jereb this will be his second outing in the WRC this year, after he also completed in Monte Carlo with a Subaru Impreza WRX, when he finished fifth in the Group N class.

"Even though it is our first time on gravel in the FIA World Rally Championship I'm nevertheless confident that we will reach the finish thanks to our long-time experience and perhaps have the opportunity to score one or two WRC-points," said Jereb, who has been rallying since 1993.

Other significant entries:

Around 91 crews have entered the Acropolis Rally, including 21 WRC cars.

Kronos Citroen will again enter an additional car for Junior World Rally champion Daniel Sordo, fresh from his fantastic third place finish in Sardinia - his third 'senior' podium of the year on only his seventh outing in a WRC and only his third with the Xsara WRC on gravel!

"In Sardinia we have set some quite good times. I had the feeling I was improving and we've achieved a better result than we expected," he stated. "Being on the podium in Sardinia and knowing there were all these drivers there was a great result. For Greece we have to try to continue our good performance even if I know it's a very demanding rally on the cars and on the tyres."

Former Ford works driver, Toni Gardemeister meanwhile returns after having last been in action way back in January at the season opening, Rallye Monte Carlo. He will again be in an Astra Racing-run car, although he will now use a Citroen Xsara WRC, as opposed to a Peugeot 307. The Finn tested the car for the first time last week in France and was pleased with how it went.

"I'm impressed by the potential of the car," he said. "I have immediately got a very good feeling thanks to its fantastic handling and the suspension, which allowed me to push hard and go flat out where it was very rough."

Astra team manager, Luca Pregliasco meanwhile was also pleased: "The Xsara seems easy to drive and Toni found the limit on his first run," he added. "It's a very good car and its proven reliability is important to help us to achieve a good result. This year the stages [in Greece] are new for all drivers and Toni's experience will play an important role in helping him to manage the stages of one of the most difficult rallies in the WRC."

Other entrants at the wheel of a WRC car include: Alex Bengue (Peugeot 307 WRC), Jan Kopecky (Czech RT Skoda Fabia WRC), Francois Duval (First Skoda Fabia WRC), Jussi Valimaki (Mitsubishi Lancer WRC) and Martin Prokop (Skoda Fabia WRC).

There will be a strong presence from local drivers too, with over 40 Greeks set to take part, Aris Vovos the most noticeable and likely to figure the most prominently in his Subaru Impreza S11 WRC.

Schedule:

The rally has undergone a complete facelift. Following the phenomenal success of last year's super special stage at Athens' Olympic Stadium, organisers have based the entire event there. The stadium will again host the opening action on Thursday evening with live television and an expected 60,000 capacity crowd, with a repeat of the 2.80km test bringing the rally to a close on Sunday afternoon.

Apart from the stadium tests, all the remaining stages are different to 2005. Some are completely new, while others have been used in a different format several years ago. The opening leg begins with a test on the very edge of Athens before heading north-west of the city. The second, and longest, day is located to the west while the final day is based on roads already used but run in the opposite direction.

Each leg comprises two loops of identical stages, split by service at the Olympic Stadium, with the super special added to the end of Sunday's itinerary. Drivers tackle 18 stages, which are at a lower altitude than in recent times and are hilly rather than mountainous, covering 355.62km in a route of 1279.29km.

Hot tip:

Pre-event it looks like the Acropolis will again be a two-horse race with Sebastien Loeb and Marcus Gronholm equal favourites. Gronholm perhaps has the edge, if the Focus is reliable and if he has a change of luck. If not expect Loeb to notch up his sixth win in a row.

Last year:

Sebastien Loeb won the event in 2005 beating Toni Gardemeister, by over 1.5 minutes. Carlos Sainz completed the podium, with Marcus Gronholm and Mikko Hirvonen fourth and fifth respectively. Several 'works' drivers' had problems - the most notable retirements were Roman Kresta, Chris Atkinson, Janne Tuohino and Jani Paasonen.