Greece is where seasons can unravel – or surge into life. The iconic Rally of Gods, as it’s known, is a brutal mid-season crucible: a cocktail of jagged rocks, soaring heat, and relentless gravel that has humbled the world’s best for decades.
As the 2025 season reaches its halfway mark, Elfyn Evans leads the standings – but only just. The Toyota driver arrives in Lamia with a 19-point buffer – a gap that has been steadily eroded over the past two rounds, having once stood at 43 points.
The Welshman’s reward is a disadvantage on the road: as first car through Friday’s loose stages, he’ll be sweeping a clean line for those behind and that could be costly.
Behind him, Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä are closing in. Ogier has won three of his four starts so far this year and remains undefeated on gravel. Rovanperä, just one point further back, is gathering momentum with a win followed by two podiums from his last three rallies – and is a two-time Acropolis winner.
All three are Toyota men. But this is, most recently, Hyundai territory. The Korean marque delivered a crushing 1-2-3 on last year’s Acropolis – and its i20 N Rally1 trio return hungry for more. Reigning champion Thierry Neuville, Ott Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux are still searching for Hyundai’s first win of the season.
Tänak sits fourth overall, with Neuville fifth and Fourmaux down in seventh after failing to score any points in Portugal or Italy.
Josh McErlean, Grégoire Munster, Mārtiņš Sesks and Jourdan Serderidis form a four-strong M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 line-up.
The British squad boasts a strong pedigree on Greek gravel, with eight Acropolis wins (1997, 2000–2003, 2006–2007, 2009) contributing to a total of 13 victories for Ford machinery since the rally’s inception in 1951.
