Hyundai's reserve driver Dani Sordo had a frustrating Greece Rally as two tire punctures dashed his hopes of a strong result.
Two breakthrough runs were sabotaged.
The Spanish driver had moved up to fourth place after Friday's first real stage; however, a blowout in the very next stage dropped the experienced driver almost two minutes behind the leaders. Although Sordo managed to recover to eighth place by the end of Friday, the gap between him and the leaders had already reached almost three minutes.
“It was a tough rally for us. It started well, but the puncture on Friday took us out of the fight,” said Sordo. “With the second puncture on Saturday, we lost even more time, and after that, we couldn’t rely on either the tires or the grip.”
Deliberate withdrawal before the Power Stage
Sordo started Sunday in a comfortable eighth place, with significant gaps ahead and behind him. After two of the day's four stages, he was just over 40 seconds behind Elfyn Evans of Toyota; however, he had a lead of almost 55 seconds over Martins Sesks of M-Sport Ford.
After Sordo completed the penultimate stage, Hyundai decided to withdraw the car for strategic reasons. “Ultimately, we decided to withdraw the car before the Wolf Power Stage in order to give the team as much flexibility as possible for the next two fast gravel rallies,” Sordo explained.
Next up is Estonia.
The FIA World Rally Championship will continue with the Rally Estonia from July 16-19. Esapekka Lappi will drive Hyundai's third Rally1 car in this race.