Virves secures dramatic WRC2 win in Greece

The Acropolis Rally has delivered another brutal, beautiful lesson in how quickly fortunes change on these roads. Robert Virves and his co-driver Jakko Viilo claimed the WRC2 victory in their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, finishing 1min 02.4sec ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen after a day of pure chaos around Loutraki.

Mikkelsen looked to have the win in his pocket with a 13.9sec lead, but a rock on the first pass of Loutraki forced a wheel change that destroyed his advantage. Virves, who had been pushing hard since Saturday, inherited the top spot and managed to limp home despite a late puncture on Aghii Theodori 2. As Virves himself admitted, "That is rallying sometimes, especially on roads like this."

Alejandro Cachón took third, showing incredible resolve to manage a broken windscreen and bodywork damage. Meanwhile, a fourth-place finish for Korhonen was enough to vault him into the WRC2 championship lead with 64 points. With eight of 14 rounds now complete, the title race is wide open, as Yohan Rossel slipped to fifth following a Saturday retirement and others like Jan Solans struggled through a double puncture and a 2min 30sec time penalty.