2006 Acropolis Rally

The 2006 Acropolis Rally was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 1 and 4 June 2006. It marked the 53rd running of the Acropolis Rally, and was the eight round of the 2006 World Rally Championship season.^[2] The event was also the fourth round of the 2006 Production World Rally Championship. The 2006 event was based in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece and was contested over eighteen special stages, covering a total competitive distance of 355.62km (220.97 miles).

Sebastien Loeb, along with Kronos Citroën World Rally Team were the defending rally winners, having won the previous five rallies in a row. Loeb lead championship rival Marcus Gronholm in the championship by 31 points coming into the weekend.

Gronholm and co-driver Timo Rautiainen won the rally, their first win since the 2006 Swedish Rally and their third win of the season.^[3]

The following crews were set to enter the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship and its support category, the Production World Rally Championship, as well as privateer entries that were not registered to score points in the manufacturer's championship. Twenty two were entered under World Rally Car regulations, as were fifteen in the Production WRC category.^[4]

All dates and times are CEST (UTC+2).

Petter Solberg would win the shakedown on thursday, beginning what would be his 100th world rally.^[6] But it would be Loeb that won the first stage of the rally, a short super special stage inside of the Olympic Stadium in Athens. Gronholn would end up second, while shakedown winner Solberg would end up thirteenth on the opening day.^[7]

Friday would be a display of absolute dominance by Gronholm, who won every single stage of the day. Petter Solberg would manage to end the day ahead of Loeb despite experiencing three punctures in the morning. Petter's brother Henning would suffer a tyre blow-out at high speed, dropping him to seventh overall, while Chris Atkinson was struck with a front differential issue, rendering his morning ruined.^[8] The afternoon section of the leg would be less chaotic, with Hirvonen ending the day in fourth ahead of the surprisingly quick Duval. Gardemeister would drop to eighth after hitting a rock and experiencing shoulder pain in stage seven, handing sixth to Stohl.^[9]

Saturday would entail a closer battle between Gronholm and Loeb; Gronholm would win four of the day's six stages, but crucially, Loeb would win the longest stage of the rally twice, limiting the damage and finishing the day within two minutes of the leader. Despite being second, a puncture resulting in heavy damage in the last stage of the day raised concerns that Loeb wouldn't be able to continue.^[10][11] Henning Solberg would lose much of his braking power, but still set a competitive third fastest time in stage ten. Petter Solberg, meanwhile, would be forced to retire after crashing on the road section between stages twelve and thirteen. This would promote Hirvonen to third overall.^[12]

On Sunday, Gronholm would extend his lead over Loeb despite overall driving cautiously to avoid a retirement on the rough Greek stages. It would be a recovering Petter Solberg who won all but the super special stage on the day, recovering to an impressive seventh after restarting in ninth. Loeb would not risk anything, continuing to fall behind Gronholm in order to protect his second place, which he successfully maintained. The tight battle for fourth would be interrupted by Stohl retiring after a roll and Sordo losing a minute with an engine issue.^[13] This would hand fourth in the rally to Gardemeister. Henning Solberg held fifth by under a second from the charging Sordo. After an impressive start, Duval would retire on Saturday to finish thirteenth overall.^[14]

All dates and times are EEST (UTC+3).

• Results at eWRC.com
• Results at Jonkka's World Rally Archive
• Maps at Rally Maps.com