Loeb Leads Acropolis Rally Headed into Final Day

Topics:  Acropolis Rally of Greece

VOA Sports
June 25, 2005

World Champion driver Sebastien Loeb of France has won all eight stages of the Acropolis rally in Greece Saturday and continues to lead the overall standings.

Loeb finished the day with an overall time of 2:54:28.8. He leads second place driver, Toni Garmeister of Finland, by 1:24. The Frenchman has driven his Citroen to victories in 11 of the first 15 stages in the 18 stage race.

Garmeister took advantage of drive shaft trouble which hampered Finnish countryman Marcus Gronholm in a Peugeot to move from fourth to second place in the overall standings.

Gronholm is in fourth place, trailing Loeb by 2:44 seconds. Loeb's Citroen teammate, and former world champion, Carlos Sainz of Spain is third in the standings 01:32.3 seconds behind the leader.

Loeb looks to win an unprecedented fifth straight rally victory this season. He leads the championship standings with 55 points, 13 more than second placed Norwegian Peter Solberg.

Some information for this report provided by AP.