Suzuki in the top 10 on the toughest event of the year

Following last night¹s exceptionally popular ceremonial start at the Parthenon in the centre of Athens, the Suzuki SX4 WRC drivers Toni Gardemeister and P-G Andersson started the main event and the competitive action north of the city of Athens this morning. Arguably the harshest rally on the calendar, the Acropolis Rally combines the rockiest roads with the hottest conditions. Both Suzukis coped admirably with everything this Greek summer could throw at them. Andersson was never out of the top 10 and was ninth overnight, while his team-mate Gardemeister ended the day on the fringes of the top 10 in 11th position.

Tomorrow¹s stages are likely to be the toughest on the route. The itinerary includes the longest test of the whole event, the fearsome 32.16km Aghii Theodori test ­ which is also expected to be the roughest and rockiest in this year¹s championship: a true test for the world¹s fastest rally drivers.

Suzuki arrived in Greece with the brace of SX4 WRCs sporting a similar set-up to the one employed by Gardemeister and Andersson on the last round in Italy. Clearly, it¹s a set-up which works in Greece, as both cars ran well across the rough terrain. Neither car suffered any significant technical issues on the stages.

Toni Gardemeister: ³Everything has been quite okay today. We had some trouble this morning with the fuel pumps, but the afternoon was good. I was at 95 per cent. There is more to come.²

Paul Wilding, Suzuki World Rally Team manager: ³Suzuki¹s target for this event is to get the SX4 WRCs to the end of the rally. We¹re one-third of the way through the toughest rally of the year ­ and we¹ve had a clean run. The team is very pleased with that. We¹re not so focused on stage times here in Greece, what we want to see is good, consistent pace and reliability and both drivers have delivered that. We¹re looking forward to more of the same tomorrow, but we remain mindful of just how hard this rally can be.²

Leaderboard after Day 1
1. S Loeb/D Elena FRA Citroen C4 1hr 21min 34.8sec
2. D Sordo/M Marti ESP Citroen C4 1hr 21min 50.5sec
3. P Solberg/P Mills NOR Subaru Impreza 1hr 22min 33.9sec
4. H Solberg/C Menkerud NOR Ford Focus RS 1hr 22min 40.8sec
5. U Aava/K Sikk EST Citroen C4 1hr 22min 50.3sec
6. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 22min 53.7sec
7. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 23min 11.2sec
8. C Atkinson/S Prévot AUS Subaru Impreza 1hr 23min 11.6sec
9. P-G Andersson/J Andersson SWE Suzuki SX4 1hr 23min 58.6sec
10 F Villagra/J Perez Companc ARG Ford Focus RS 1hr 24min 04.1sec