Thierry Neuville is refusing to get carried away with his Acropolis Rally lead ahead of what is expected to be the roughest stage of the World Rally Championship event on Sunday.

This year’s edition of the Acropolis Rally has proved to be among the toughest in recent years with all five drivers mathematically in the title fight finding trouble.

Neuville managed to avoid trouble through Saturday’s six stages to move into a 54.9s lead to compete a recovery after his i20 N was reduced to three cylinders in Friday’s opening three stages.

Punctures for team-mates Ott Tanak and Dani Sordo helped Neuville into the lead to claim 18 provisional points for ending Saturday on top of the timesheets — three more than main title rival Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier.

However, the Belgian says “nothing is done yet” with Sunday’s three stages, featuring two passes of the roughest stage of the rally, Eleftherohori, which will host the Power Stage. Neuville is also unsure how to tackle Sunday’s stages that will offer a maximum of 12 points.

“It has been a good day but nothing is done yet and we have to keep that in mind tomorrow is a challenging day, the Power Stage is super tricky, nothing is done,” Neuville told Motorsport.com.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“A lot of things have happened and somehow we have all had some issues nevertheless we are here despite doing three stages with troubles. We have lost less time than the others and we have had a constant run today which has given us the lead.

“We need to find the right balance. I don’t know yet [how to play it]. We need to follow our objectives but we know there are a lot of points to take tomorrow.”

Neuville, who has opted not to react to Ogier’s critical comments directed toward him on Friday night admitted that a good weekend for him would be to leave Greece with his 27-point championship lead over Ogier intact.

“I think if this is a good weekend for me I need to take at least the same amount of points as Seb,” he added.

Ogier shared Neuville’s thoughts on the challenge that will face the crews on Sunday, hinting that there is still a high chance for more drama.

“I think there is always satisfaction when you finish a day here in Greece, it has been a challenging weekend and the three stages tomorrow are far from easy,” Ogier told Motorsport.com.

“I would describe the Power Stage which we have to drive twice as the roughest stage of the weekend. I think we might not have seen all of the action and obviously an important day for both of the championships.

“It is the toughest Greece I have done, but I expect tomorrow to be the worst day”

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville has inherited the Acropolis Rally lead after team-mate Dani Sordo became the latest World Rally Championship Rally1 driver to hit trouble.

Sordo had moved into the lead of the rally on the opening stage of the day when team-mate and overnight leader Ott Tanak suffered two punctures in separate incidents.

He started the afternoon’s stages with a 10.3s advantage over Neuville but his time in the lead was short-lived as drama struck in stage nine [Aghii Theodori 1, 25.87km], held in extreme heat.

The right rear tyre on his i20 N let go during the stage after hitting a rock causing damage to the rear bodywork of his car, which allowed dust to come inside the cabin. Sordo pressed on on three tyres and reached the stage end ceding 51.3s.

The time loss handed Neuville the lead of the rally for the first time this weekend where he will stand to collect 18 provisional points should the Belgian end the day in the lead.

Speaking at the stage end before Sordo suffered this tyre failure, Neuville said: “My goals are very simple, get through the day without a problem, especially without a puncture.

“I’m fighting a bit with the rear, tricky conditions in there, lots of loose gravel I am trying to avoid.

“The second pass will be tough. There are already lots of the sharp stones and anything can happen here in the second pass. Hopefully, we get through, have that little bit of luck we need, everything feels good in the car.”

While Neuville claimed the rally lead, the stage was won by Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier, who took 5.7s out of the former’s advantage.

With the gap to leader Neuville standing at 1m21.5s, Ogier felt the margin to the championship leader was too large to recover.

“The gaps are too big! We keep doing our job as best as we can, we’ll see,” said Ogier.

”Without service in Greece it is a big challenge, so far we are happy and we will try to finish the day.”

Tanak successfully managed to pass through what he declared “the roughest” test of the rally to date, to maintain fourth overall, but behind there was drama for fifth-placed Gregor Munster.

The M-Sport-Ford driver went off the road with his Puma becoming stuck in a ditch at the side of the road. Munster’s exit handed fifth to WRC2 class leader Sami Pajari ahead of Robert Virves.

The crews will tackle two more stages this afternoon before a super special stage near Athens tonight.

Hyundai’s Dani Sordo increased his lead over his World Rally Championship team-mate Thierry Neuville to close out a dramatic Saturday morning at the Acropolis Rally.

Sordo, competing in a part-time campaign, inherited the rally lead when his Hyundai team-mate Ott Tanak lost time following two tyre failures on stage seven.

The Spaniard drove smartly through the two tricky gravel stages to open up a 10.3s advantage over championship leader Neuville.

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier climbed to third [+1m41.2s] with Tanak falling to fourth [+3m35.1s] after his tyre woes. M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster leapt from seventh to fifth [+4m01.1s] in front of top WRC2 runners Sami Pajari and Robert Virves.

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta rejoined the rally after their respective retirements on Friday.

Tanak generated the major headline from the morning stages when the rally leader suffered a double puncture in stage seven (Rengini, 28.67km).

He had started Saturday with a 21.8s margin over Sordo before a right rear puncture halted his progress five kilometres into the stage. The Estonian pulled to the side of the road to change the wheel.

Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja only lost 1m21.6s, but the rally lead had evaporated.

To make matters worse, a second puncture arrived 10 kilometres later, this time, the front right. Tanak eventually reached the stage end losing 4m06.4s dropping him from the lead to fourth overall.

Dani Sordo, Candido Carrera, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

“The first one was off the rim and the second one was a bent rim,” said Tanak, who was the only driver from the five title contenders to avoid trouble on Friday.

Tanak’s double puncture handed Sordo the rally lead by 7.2s from team-mate and championship leader Thierry Neuville.

Neuville won the stage by 0.2s from Ogier, who moved to third following Tanak’s problems.

The rocky and abrasive conditions were replaced by a sandy road surface to add another challenge for the crews to tackle in stage eight (Thiva, 20.95km),

The soft road surface made rotating the car difficult with Fourmaux and Ogier both comparing the stage to like “driving on a beach”.

Tyre strategies differed among the crews but it was Ogier, who opted for a hard and soft mix, that won the stage by 7.4s from the hard tyre shod Sordo.

“It is not fun to drive this stage, it is like driving on the beach. Full of sand everywhere, I’m fighting to turn the car everywhere,» said Ogier.

Sordo’s effort was 3.1s faster than Neuville, who was also running four hard compound tyres. He completed the run after bumping his head while making changes to his i20 N that required a plaster to be fitted above his right eye.

“I was working on the car before and I hit my head,” said Sordo.

“I was thinking in case I need to change the wheel during the stage, I couldn’t put the jack in. I was playing a little bit and [then there was a] bump.”

Neuville conceded that he had opted for more cautious tyre strategy and explained: 

“We are on full hards, we took a safer choice this morning. I’m trying to enjoy the car more than yesterday, we changed the setup and it is much better,” said Neuville.

The crews will tackle three more stages this afternoon before a super special stage near Athens tonight.

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak has regained the Acropolis Rally lead while Adrien Fourmaux’s pursuit of a maiden World Rally Championship victory has come to a halt.

Tanak moved into a five-second rally lead when he took advantage of a mysterious issue for rally leader Sebastien Ogier’s Toyota GR Yaris on stage five.

Ogier had been running strongly before dropping time in the final split of the 21.67km Dafni test.

The eight-time world champion reported at the stage end that there was an issue with his GR Yaris after dropping 16.7s to stage winner Tanak.

“We have to check something,” said Ogier, who had won the previous stage four to extend his advantage over Tanak to 11.7s.

Tanak had been elevated to second overall heading into stage five after Fourmaux’s exit on the previous test, Ano Pavliani.

The M-Sport-Ford driver had navigated through Friday morning’s rough gravel stages to trail rally leader Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier by 5.9s.

Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Fourmaux’s morning loop times were made even more impressive considering he lost time to the hanging dust from Elfyn Evans’ wounded Toyota GR Yaris, and completed the trio of stages without hybrid power.

However, at the start of stage four, the second pass through Ano Pavliani, the Frenchman clipped a rock and broke the steering on his Ford Puma.

Fourmaux, sitting fifth in the championship standings, pulled over in the stage to attempt a fix as he witnessed his hopes of a fifth podium evaporate.

“We have got all the parts. I don’t know, there was nothing in my pace notes and there was a rock on the inside and I touched it and it broke the steering arm and the compression strut,” said Fourmaux.

“I was like, ‘OK we can fix it and continue,’ but I cannot get the bolts out, it is too tight, I don’t know what to do now.”

Hyundai’s Dani Sordo climbed to third, 22.5s, behind rally leader Tanak ahead of the final stage of the loop later this evening.

Championship leader Thierry Neuville completed the two stages in fourth overall, now equipped with a fully functioning i20 N after being reduced to three cylinders across the morning loop.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“The car was working a lot better, thank you to the team for fixing it,” said Neuville.

Toyota managed to fix a turbocharger problem during midday service on Evans’ GR Yaris that hampered the Welshman this morning. Evans remained outside of the points-paying positions, 9m11.1s adrift.

“Everything is fixed we are just experimenting with a few things now,” said Evans.

The top five was rounded out by M-Sport-Ford’s Gregoire Munster.