The Acropolis Rally involves a 308 km course over 15 stages, the most legendary of which is without a doubt Sunday morning's Tarzan stage.

Ott Tänak, who drives for M-Sport Ford, has never won in Greece, though still has quite a good form having finished second last year and in 2021, when he drove for Hyundai.

This season so far has been a bit up and down for the Estonian; a win in Sweden was followed by his last podium position to date, in Croatia in April; results before a home crowd at Rally Estonia, and then in Rally Finland, were disappointing.

Weather forecasts ahead of the event expected temperatures of 25-26C and a chance of rain on the first two days.

In the event, this materialized on Thursday, when the traditional first stage was canceled due to bad weather.

On Friday, Tänak encountered technical problems ahead of stage four, which led to a 40s-econd penalty; in the event, poor conditions led to the stage being canceled again, after eight cars had run.

The Estonian made up for this with back-to-back stage wins in stages five and six, and by the end of Friday he was in ninth position (+3.34.5); Belgian Thierry Neuville was in the lead in the Hyundai i20.

Another Estonian, WRC2 category driver Georg Linnamäe (Hyundai) crashed out on Friday, bringing his Rally Greece to a premature end. Neither Linnamäe nor his British co-driver James Morgan were hurt in the incident, though the car was badly damaged.

Saturday brings six more stages, two of which (won by reigning champion and table leader Kalle Rovanperä (Finland, Toyota), and Neuville respectively) have been completed at the time of writing, with Tänak up to eight place as noted.

Sunday, the final day of the race, will have a further three stages.

The remaining races for the 2023 season are in Chile, Germany (Central European Rally) and Japan.

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