Sebastien Ogier said the Greek gods had finally smiled on him. The timing of their gift, on the penultimate stage of the Acropolis Rally, could hardly have been crueller for Thierry Neuville.
The eight-time champion won Rally Greece for the second time, 15 years after his first victory there, and turned a tense, attritional weekend into a championship statement. It is the 69th win of his career, and it came with a clean sweep: the rally victory, maximum Super Sunday points and the Wolf Power Stage on top.
For three days the lead barely stretched into double figures. Neuville carried a 4.1-second advantage into the final day, only for Ogier to edge ahead by 1.3 seconds on stage 15. Then the rally turned: a tyre-pressure alert and a late puncture for Neuville broke the deadlock and handed Ogier control. The Belgian nursed a battered car to second, 58.3 seconds adrift, but never stopped pushing.
"We gave it everything until the end and never gave up," Neuville said.
Ogier knew how close it had been. "We knew that there was never any time to relax up to this power stage, which was so rough," he said. "I couldn't push in there. I just drove as gently as I could and felt for every stone." He called the win "a bit of a payback from the one we lost in Portugal," and was blunt about what it meant: "A perfect weekend, taking maximum points, exactly what we need."
The result reshapes the title fight. Championship leader Elfyn Evans suffered a puncture of his own on the opening stage of the final day and trailed home seventh. His Toyota teammate Takamoto Katsuta took third, and with it a chunk out of Evans's advantage, which is now just seven points.
For Katsuta, who started second on the road and managed the rough Greek stages without a single puncture, it was arguably his finest weekend of a season that already includes two wins. It was also personal.
"Today is the most important for my life," he said. "My daughter's birthday, so I'm very happy to bring the trophy for her. Happy birthday, Mira. I love you so much."
The day's other story belonged to M-Sport. Josh McErlean kept his head through a chaotic final leg to finish fourth, the best result of his career and, per DirtFish, M-Sport Ford's best WRC finish since November 2024. His teammate Jon Armstrong claimed his first Rally1 stage win along the way.
"A rally of what could have been," Armstrong reflected. "We had the pace for strong results this weekend, but unfortunately luck had other ideas."
Not everything about the weekend was clean racing. The FIA confirmed it had investigated footage appearing to show a spectator throwing a rock at a passing car, while Hyundai's decision to retire Dani Sordo as a strategic measure to bank flexibility for the upcoming fast rallies left some uneasy.
Ogier, who has still not confirmed how many more events he will contest this year, hinted a decision is close: "I'll be ready to tell you soon, but I've already been taking some decisions before this weekend." On current form, the part-time veteran is suddenly a full-blown title contender, jumping two places to third on 125 points.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/ogier-wins-acropolis-as-neuvilles-late-punctures-strike-again). Visit for full coverage.*