World Rally Championship: Kalle Rovanpera extends lead over Elfyn Evans with Greece win
Finland's Kalle Rovanpera has extended his World Rally Championship lead over Elfyn Evans with victory at Acropolis Rally Greece.
Runner-up Evans is now 33 points behind Toyota team-mate Rovanpera, with three rounds remaining.
The Welsh driver suffered several mechanical problems during the rally but held off a late charge by Spain's Dani Sordo to hold on to second place.
"It looks like it wasn't so bad in the end," said Evans.
"Dani had me a bit worried after the first pass though this morning, so I'm relieved to be honest.
"After giving away some time last night, we needed this position at least."
Evans and co-driver Scott Martin made a slow start to the rally and were further hampered during Saturday's stage nine when they were forced to limp to the finish in EV mode, with their Toyota Yaris Hybrid warning of high oil temperatures.
He finished a huge one-and-a-half minutes behind Rovanpera who was fastest on eight of the event's 15 stages.
Storms which disrupted preparations and forced the cancellations of some stages left challenging conditions and both Belgian Thierry Neuville and Frenchman Sebastien Ogier were forced to retire when leading the rally.
Rovanpera, seeking back-to-back WRC titles, took full advantage and won the final power stage to increase his overall advantage over Evans by eight points.
It was the Finnish driver's third rally success of the season, while 2020 and 2021 runner-up Evans has two victories, in Croatia and last month in Finland.
Round 11 is Rally Chile, which runs from 28 September to 1 October, and is followed by the Central European Rally at the end of next month before November's season finale in Japan.
FIA World Rally Championship standings (after Acropolis Rally Greece)
1 Kalle Rovanpera (Fin) Toyota, 200 points
2 Elfyn Evans (GB) Toyota, 167 points
3 Thierry Neuville (Bel) Hyundai, 134 points
4 Ott Tanak (Est) Hyundai, 119 points
5 Sebastien Ogier (Fra) Toyota, 99 points
