Elfyn maintains championship lead after tough test in Greece

Road position and puncture hampers Welshman but he still ends with battling fifth place.

Elfyn battled through a testing weekend hampered by road position in Acropolis Rally Greece to continue to maintain top spot in the FIA World Rally Championship title fight. 

Running first on the road on loose gravel stages, with all but one stage as first pass on Friday, was always likely to prove a challenge but Elfyn got through the tough day without significant problems. He made the most of his improved running order on Saturday and progressed up the leaderboard. 

He was challenging for fourth position, and a decent road position for Super Sunday, until a puncture on stage 13 saw him drop two minutes as he stopped mid-stage to change it,  knocking him back to seventh place overnight. 

Frustratingly that meant it was always going to be difficult to fight for the additional Super Sunday points in a rally that tested crews, cars and tyres to the limit. However, Elfyn received a late boost though, with both Josh McErlean and Adrien Fourmaux suffering one minute penalties for seat belt infringements, moving him up to fifth overall. 

Team-mate Sebastien Ogier took maximum points from the weekend, while Takamoto Katsuta finished third to move within 11 points of Elfyn at the top of the WRC standings.