Rally dell’Acropoli 2026, Day 3: Neuville remains in command, but damages the car at the end

The battle for victory between Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Ogier in Greece is becoming increasingly intense, where the two also contested the stages of the ‘Rally of the Gods’ today after a long battle that had already seen them protagonists yesterday. The two, separated by only 4 seconds and with the Belgian Hyundai driver leading the standings, will claim the final victory in tomorrow’s Super Sunday, in stages that could still reserve twists like those seen in the last stage of this Saturday.

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SS8-SS10: Ogier hunting Neuville

In an attempt to recover ground on Neuville in the overall standings, Ogier started the third day of the Acropolis Rally in the best way, winning SS8 just ahead of the Belgian Hyundai driver and Fourmaux, betrayed by a puncture just as he was leading in the morning of Day 2. In the following stage, the Frenchman of the Korean team again gave his best on the very tough Greek routes by setting the best time, with Neuville then returning to the front in SS10. In this way, the Belgian closed the first half of the day with a lead of just over 6 seconds over Ogier, all with a comeback to fourth place by Katsuta, who passed ahead of the two Ford M-Sport team cars of Armstrong and Sesks.

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SS11-SS13: more twists

Just like in the morning, Ogier opened the afternoon stages with the best time, again ahead of Neuville. An SS11 thus ended in favor of the nine-time world champion, who however finished behind the Belgian driver in the next stage, during which misfortune struck Fourmaux again, dropping to sixth position due to another puncture. However, the stage that gave the most twists was the last one, scheduled in Menalo: besides a fire starting on Armstrong’s car just before the start, punctures slowed down two drivers. While Dani Sordo hit a rock with the front right wheel, deciding anyway to continue to the finish, the same happened to the championship leader Elfyn Evans. The latter, however, lost precious time for having replaced the tire, thus dropping to 7th. The twist, especially looking ahead to Super Sunday, occurred at the end: in the last corners, Neuville lost control of his Hyundai, with a crash that seems to have caused radiator damage. The Belgian, 3rd behind Ogier and Fourmaux, still finished in front of the reigning champion, with a gap of 4 seconds between the two.

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Acropolis Rally 2026, standings after SS13 (Top-10)