FOUR PUMAS TACKLE ACROPOLIS RALLY GREECE

Four M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1s will tackle the legendary Acropolis Rally Greece next week when Grégoire Munster, Josh McErlean, Mārtiņš Sesks and Jourdan Serderidis all contest one of the most iconic events on the FIA World Rally Championship calendar.

As one of the championship’s founding rallies, the Acropolis Rally has a rich and prestigious history. Fondly known as the ‘Rally of the Gods’ the event is the team’s most successful ever rally with eight Greek victories throughout the late 90s and early 2000s.

Hoping to draw inspiration from past rally gods such as Sainz, McRae, Grönholm and Hirvonen – who all powered to Acropolis victories with Ford – the Puma quartet will be chasing a positive outing through some of the most demanding terrain of the year.

Mixing rough, mountain tracks with blistering temperatures, Acropolis Rally Greece tests man and machine alike. The rocky, narrow stages can catch out even the most experienced of crews. Tyre and engine preservation is key and, as the twisting stages limit natural airflow, cockpit temperatures can rise as high as 50˚C.

Returning to the event for a fourth consecutive year, Munster and co-driver Louis Louka will be looking to put past knowledge to good use – combining strategy with pace to showcase their progress and improvement on gravel.

With just one previous outing to his name, McErlean may not have a vast amount of experience in Greece, but he and co-driver Eoin Treacy have impressed with their recent pace on gravel and will be keen to show more of the same next week.

Making his Acropolis Rally debut, Sesks has no prior experience of the Greek stages and will be introduced to the event’s unforgiving terrain during the pre-event reconnaissance. But the young Latvian has momentum on his side; he and co-driver Renars Francis bouncing back from a difficult Rally Sardinia with a confidence-building victory at last weekend’s Rally Poland.

Completing the Puma quartet, Serderidis will contest his home event for the eighth time next week. He and co-driver Frédéric Miclotte secured their best Acropolis Rally finish of seventh overall as part of the European Rally Championship in 2018 and will be aiming for another fruitful and enjoyable outing in front of the home crowd.

Richard Millener, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Principal, said:

“Acropolis Rally Greece is undeniably one of the toughest events we see in this championship, and I suspect next week will bring its fair share of challenges! We are due to see some pretty scorching temperatures and the stage conditions are due to be as rough as ever.

“Both Grégoire and Josh had a difficult Rally Sardinia, so the focus in Greece is to have a clean run and avoid trouble to bring home a solid result. 

“Mārtiņš will be making his Greece debut and will no-doubt be looking to his teammates for some guidance on navigating this tricky event. It’ll be nice to have Jourdan back with us again on his home event where he can hopefully add another strong finish to his roster.”

Grégoire Munster said:

“Of course, we are looking to do better than in Sardinia. Although we aren’t testing in Greece, we used Saturday in Sardinia to get some ideas, and with those ideas we will start the rally in Greece and I’m quite confident we will do well with the package we have. We have done a lot of preparation with the engineers and so I feel well-equipped for this next challenge.

Like Sardinia, the event will be a long and hot one, and there will definitely be opportunity to bring home a good result and we will aim to score some good points next week.”

Josh McErlean said:

"Heading into the Acropolis Rally, the focus is on a clean and consistent performance. It's no secret this event is one of the demanding ones on the calendar – the heat, the rough stages. After the disappointment in Sardinia, I really want to deliver a solid result for the team. They’ve worked incredibly hard, and they deserve something to show for it. Our aim is to stay out of trouble, manage the conditions smartly, and hopefully come away with a strong, trouble-free rally.”

Mārtiņš Sesks said:

“This will be my first time ever visiting Greece, so really we have no idea of what awaits us there. I remember watching the rally during my childhood, hearing the name Acropolis Rally and knowing that means something demanding and rough! It will be interesting to experience that, and we hope for a good weekend there. There will certainly be some steep learning curves, but we will come out stronger at the end.”

Jourdan Serderidis said:

“Acropolis is the most highly anticipated and important event of our season. We have been preparing our program with the objective to get a Top-10 in Lamia (even though we already got a Top-8 in Kenya!). To reach this goal, we need to improve again our pace compared to Sardinia and continue to also improve the setup of the car with the Hankook tyres. 

“We still have a PET on Saturday to prepare. We are super excited to meet again the Greek fans who can also give us an additional boost which can make a real difference. We will also be fighting for the 1st Greek Cup, so we have plenty of challenges here!”

Published 20 June 2025