After rallies on the Nordic gravel roads, the hard tyres are back in service

Many changes to the route compared to last year

Testoni: “Pay attention to tyre management, especially wear”

After three dramatic Nordic rallies which have left the championship battle wide open  and where the soft Scorpions ruled, for the Acropolis Rally, the hard version of Pirelli’s dirt tyre will be back in the spotlight. This is the traditional and indeed inevitable choice, given the nature of one of the toughest if not the toughest event of the season because of:

• hard and stony roads that stress not only the tyres, but the cars too
•  dirty and sandy surfaces that favour the later starters
• the twisty nature of the mountain stages
• generally high, if not torrid temperatures and the forecast for Saturday predicts heavy and intense downpours which could shake up plans and make for complicated choices for the crews

Furthermore, compared to last year’s Acropolis Rally, there are some changes that mix things up a bit, making what is already a very challenging event for drivers, cars and tyres, ever more uncertain.

Unlike last year, Friday will be the longest in terms of kilometres, with 135 in total split exactly in half between the morning and the afternoon. These include two runs through the famous Tarzan stage, although the longest section of the entire rally takes place on Saturday morning. Featuring on the second day are the three long Rengini stages, at 28.67 km the longest of the rally, Thiva (20.95) and Aghii Theodori (25.87) the latter the only one to be repeated in the afternoon, after the visit to the tyre fitting zone at Loutraki, which in 2023 was on the Friday. Sunday will also be a busy day with 54.05 kilometres, of which over half is made up of Eleftherohori, with the second run through it being the power stage.

The Acropolis Rally will decide the outcome of the 2024 Junior WRC title with Estonia’s Romet Jurgenson and Australia’s Taylor Gill in the running, currently separated by just 8 points.

PIRELLI QUOTE
Terenzio Testoni, Pirelli Rally Activity Manager: “Over the past few years, the Acropolis has proved to be an extremely spectacular and interesting rally, even if compared to the past, the road surfaces in the stages have become kinder. As we have often seen, errors in strategy and tyre management, as well as driving mistakes are always lying in wait and can carry a very high price. When it comes to tyre choice, particular attention needs to be paid to wear, which can be high in Greece, even allowing for the right balance between strength and performance provided by the Scorpions.” 

THE PIRELLI TYRES IN GREECE
For this rally, the prime choice is the hard version of the Scorpion KX HB, a tyre that provides strength and long life on the longest stages with the most abrasive surfaces in the highest temperatures. The option will be the soft compound Scorpion KX SB, a very versatile tyre which ensures optimum grip even on slippery low grip surfaces.

The regulations state that 28 prime and 8 option tyres can be used, while the latter can be increased to 12 if the crews so choose, which entails reducing the number of primes to 4.

As for the other categories in Greece the Rally2 cars will be using the Scorpion K6B (soft) and the new K4C (hard), while Rally3 will have available the K6A (soft) and the K4A (hard). For these categories, the allocation is 26 and 8 for the prime and option respectively. Crews can choose to increase the number of the latter to 12, which requires reducing the number of prime by 4.