Before the Greek round, there was no shortage of different forecasts for the course of events in all the “junior” categories, i.e. WRC-2 Open, WRC-2 Junior, WRC-2 Masters, WRC-3 Open, as well as in WRC-3 Junior (here Acropolis Rally was the final round with coefficient 2). And the recent turbulent events in Greece have already clarified something – at least in some categories, the number of title contenders has noticeably decreased… For example, in the WRC-2 Open category, many were wondering how the seventh (and last) scoring round for Andreas Mikkelsen would develop – after all, Greece was the end of the Norwegian’s program in WRC-2, and then it remained only to wait how the next rounds would develop for his main rivals. And Andreas managed to significantly worsen his chances to defend last year’s title – he got into an accident on the prologue, received a 10-minute SupeRally, then heroically fought his way from 33rd to seventh position and won the Power Stage. This allowed him to maintain the lead, but the threat of final defeat has not diminished. He can be knocked out of the first place by two more contenders for the title, the Finn Emil Lindholm, who just won last weekend (he has two more possible starts before the final stage of the season), and the Pole Kajetan Kajetanowicz (he has three starts in reserve, and Kaito has already announced in New Zealand, plus it seems to be planning to perform in Japan).
Meanwhile, two potential contenders for the title in WRC-2 Open were finally eliminated. Firstly, it is the Frenchman Yoan Rossel, who managed to lose the third position because of the “roof” on the final Power Stage and lost all chances for the crown (if he had arrived without incident, he could have become a vice-leader of the championship and a serious threat to Mikkelsen). Secondly, Nikolay Gryazin lost even theoretical chances for the final success – however, the “gesture of goodwill” in Finland, where the Russian crashed his Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo during the shakedown, helped him more. The situation is similar in the WRC-2 Junior, where only two can win the title – Finn Emil Lindholm (he has enough to take 10 points in Catalonia or Japan to become the champion) and Briton Chris Ingram (he has one more start left, but even a victory does not guarantee his overall success). Quite an interesting picture is observed in the “veteran” category of WRC-2 Masters, which unexpectedly turned out to be surprisingly popular – still we have ten crews that have started at least three rounds. The Italian Mauro Miele still retains the leadership here, but the German Armin Kremer is pressing hard on him – he has already won his third victory, moved to the third position and is now preparing for the next round in New Zealand. You can be sure that in all three categories of WRC-2 (Open, Junior, Masters) a lot will be decided in New Zealand and Catalonia – let’s see how the course of events will be.