The BWRT driver Daniel Oliveira bounced back from yesterday's flu symptoms to make his way through a muddy and demanding third day of competition in the Acropolis Rally of Greece, the sixth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
The 26-year old Brazilian driver and his Portuguese navigator Carlos Magalhaes completed the eight stages scheduled for today without any major problems, although they had to do their best to keep the car on the road in really slippery conditions duo to the rain that had fallen these days.
Being first on the road was a learning curve for Oliveira today since it was his first time sweeping the road for his rivals in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC serviced by the Stohl Racing team. Daniel re-joined the day under Rally 2 rules 33th in the overall classification but after the first loop of stages he climbed up to the 22nd position.
"We made a small spin in the first stage since I wasn't confident with my notes. The road conditions didn't help at all" said Oliveira. "This was my first time first on the road and I wasn't 100% prepared to carry out this task. We did our best" he added.
Some focalized downpours struck the Peloponnese region during the afternoon and forced the drivers to slow down considerably the pace so as to make their way through the last bunch of stages. As most of the drivers Oliveira was also using the hard compound set of tires in middle of extremely muddy and slippery conditions. Nevertheless, Oliveira managed to set two top-ten fastest times to finish the day in the 20th position.
"The road condition for the morning stages was like running on asphalt compared to what we had to face during the second loop. My confident had grown but there was no opportunity to push any harder" expressed Oliveira. "Today I felt much better and I hope to have a good rest. Tomorrow we will have a better road position and we will see if we can go further" he concluded.
Tomorrow's route. Sunday's leg totalized 65.55km and will be run in an identical way as last year, very close to the Loutraki base. Tomorrow the drivers must tackle two stages to be run twice, plus the New Loutraki Power Stage to end the competition. The finish ceremony will take place in downtown in front of the Loutraki casino.
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