Carlos Sainz claimed victory in the 44th Acropolis Rally held on Tuesday in Athens. Sainz was gifted victory when his Ford team-mate Juha Kankkunen, in only his second rally with the team, let the Spaniard through to a win. It was Sainz's, and Ford's, first win since Indonesia 1996 and 19th of his career.

Thomas Radstrom gave the Toyota-Castrol Team Sweden a fine result in fifth position in what was only his second entry into the Greek event.The Castrol-supported Skoda Felicias of Pavel Sibera and Emil Triner had a consistent rally, winning their class and finishing second and fourth respectively in Formula Two. Meanwhile, Luis Climent was a strong second with his Castrol-backed Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III in the Group N category.The Rally was held in hot and dusty conditions, and the event lived upto expectations as a car-destroying one. It was a memorable race for Ford for the one-two finish in Sainz and Kankkunen, their first one-two finish since Portugal '93.

Just as with Ford, Mitsubishi applied team orders shortly before the finish. World champion Tommi Makinen was the beneficiary, moving ahead of team-mate Richard Burns at the last service point. Burns had split the two Fords on the second day of the event but a heavy landing from a jump damaged his engine and he fell back with overheating problems. Makinen's third-place finish extended his championship lead to 10 points.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.