WRC 2026 Rd.08 Preview | 2026 | PRESS RELEASE | WRC

Acropolis Rally Greece: Preview TGR-WRT titans take title fight to Greek gravel

2026.06.19 (Fri)

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team begins a sequence of seven successive gravel challenges that will decide the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship when the legendary Acropolis Rally in Greece stages round eight of the season.

At the halfway stage of the season, following a 1-2-3-4 finish on home roads at Rally Japan three weeks ago, TGR-WRT leads the manufacturers’ standings by 127 points while its five drivers occupy the top five places in the drivers’ standings.

After winning in Japan, Elfyn Evans has a lead of 20 points ahead of Takamoto Katsuta. The team’s youngest drivers, Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari, are third and fourth, 49 and 55 points respectively from the lead. Reigning champion Sébastien Ogier, a previous winner of the Acropolis back in 2011, is 61 points from the lead in fifth in his partial campaign.

Having achieved his maiden WRC2 podium at home in Japan, TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto continues his campaign in Greece, where he drives one of 11 GR Yaris Rally2 cars on the entry list.

He is joined by category regulars Roope Korhonen, Alejandro Cachón, Gus Greensmith, Diego Domínguez, Bernhard ten Brinke and Adrien Mosca. Andrea Lafarja and Johannes Keferböck compete for WRC Masters Cup honours. Paraguayan Alejandro Galanti makes his first WRC2 appearance of the season while Luis Arceluz of Argentina is also entered into a WRC event for the first time.

The Acropolis is famed for its rough and rocky mountain stages and for high temperatures, which combine to provide a tough test for cars, tyres and crews. This year, the service park returns to the coastal resort of Loutraki, located adjacent to the Corinth Canal. Situated around 80 kilometres west of the capital city Athens, the town last served as the base for a WRC round in 2013.

A new super special stage in the Ellinikon area of Athens begins the rally on Thursday evening, before cars are then transported by sea through the Gulf of Corinth to Itea to begin Friday’s leg. This is the longest of the rally at 129.22 competitive kilometres and features a total of six stages utilising familiar roads through central Greece, with a remote mid-day service in Livadia. Saturday takes place on the Peloponnesian peninsula west of Loutraki; of four stages – two brand-new, two last driven in 2013 – two will be repeated following afternoon service in Loutraki. The rally ends on Sunday with two passes of two revised stages in the hills above Loutraki.

Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“We have had quite a strong season so far, but the second half of the year will also be demanding with so many gravel rallies to come, each one with its own challenges. The Acropolis Rally has always been one of the toughest events in the WRC. It was in my day when I was driving, and it remains the case today, even if it’s driven at much higher speeds now. It’s still a rally where anything can happen, and where it can pay to be smart. Coming back onto gravel, I expect the competition will be much closer like we saw in Portugal. It will be a tough rally, especially with all five of our cars at the front of the running order, but our team is strong and our drivers are strong.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“To win Rally Japan again was amazing and it rounded off what’s been quite a good first half of the year for us, but we know that the second half can be tough with every rally being on gravel, so everything is still very open in the championship. Greece can be one of the more difficult rallies to open the road, particularly with most of the Friday stages being run only once. But we’ve got some good experience now of being in this position, and we’ve been working hard together with the team to try and improve the feeling and the pace for those conditions. We already made a step forward in Portugal, and we’ll be trying to make the best of the situation again in Greece.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“Greece is a country that I always enjoy going to, and the Acropolis Rally is one of the historic events in our sport. It’s a rally that I managed to win quite early in my career, but since it came back to the calendar, we haven’t quite had the luck you need on this kind of rough event, with second last year being our best finish. Returning to Loutraki means there will be stages that are new or that nobody including myself has driven for a very long time, and this is a challenge I enjoy. Having come close to winning last time we were on gravel in Portugal, we will try to achieve that in Greece.”

Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“We’ve had some tough results on asphalt recently, but I’m looking forward to putting that behind me and focusing on gravel for the rest of the season, with an exciting mix of rallies coming up. We had a good result in Portugal, finishing second, and hopefully we can build on that in Greece. The Acropolis is a very demanding rally; it’s usually very hot and very rough. It’s another rally we won last year in the Rally2 car, but I’ve never driven it with a Rally1 car before. So there will be some adapting to do once again, but I will be giving it my best shot like always.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“The Acropolis Rally is a really rough and tough rally for the cars, the tyres and us as crews. Last year, when the rally moved back to the summer, was especially demanding for everyone with the heat. This year the conditions could be similar, so being as fit and prepared as possible is one of the main priorities in the lead up to this rally. It has not been the easiest event for me in the past, but working together with the team I have started to find better feeling and pace on these rougher rallies, and I will try my best like always to get a good result.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“We have been on a really strong run recently and hopefully we can continue this now that we are going back onto gravel, which is perhaps a more natural surface for me than asphalt anyway. Our performance on gravel in Portugal was really good – one of our best so far – even though we didn’t get a reward for it. The Acropolis is a tough rally but I’ve done quite well there before – I finished P4 with the Rally2 car two years ago, and started with good pace last year until we had to stop with a problem. If we can have a clean run this time, I think we can do well.”

Yuki Yamamoto (Driver WRC Challenge Program GEN2)
“After our successful finish at Rally Japan, I’m confident to continue fighting for good results in the next events. Greece is a tough rally where you cannot really push to the maximum; there can be surprises and you need to manage it well. I did have pretty good feeling and pace there last year, and with the experience that I now have, I think we can have a good rally. There will be a lot of competition in WRC2, but I hope to score some good points. I’m trying to prepare as well as I can, especially on the physical side given the hot conditions, and I’m looking forward to it.”