Q&A with Lambros Athanassoulas

This is what the local favourite had to say at the SEAJETS Acropolis Rally pre-event press conference.

What do you think of this year’s Acropolis Rally route, with over 200kms of stages, plus Free Practice and Qualifying all in just two days?“It’s very compact and challenging for the teams and drivers – even for the spectators! It’s one day less for all the teams to go back and prepare for the rally, so it’s a nice try and I think it might be good for next year also to follow the same path.”

How difficult will it be to start this year’s event with the 43.41-kilometre SEAJETS Kineta-Loutraki test, and what strategy will you take into the opening test?“Such a long stage is difficult, even if it is the last stage of the rally. It’s challenging for the cars first of all the drivers and certainly for me and Nicos it’s more challenging for us than the others, because it will be the first stage we have done for let’s say four years, since our last Acropolis in 2011, we did on gravel. It’s really challenging and I hope we can come to the finish, be safe and the car in perfect condition.”

You haven’t done many rallies in the last few years. Do you think that will be a big disadvantage, or are you out to try and beat the ERC regulars?“Look, I am not crazy! I know these guys are super-fast, they are driving every week almost and you can say they are professional drivers, with two or three years experience in their cars. I was expecting to be the maximum fourth fastest on the Qualifying Stage and we did it. We didn’t push a lot – okay, we didn’t go slowly, but we didn’t take any risks because we are still learning the car. It is very difficult to jump in a car, a new R5, after four years of not driving, and be fast from the beginning. So we will try to adjust our speed to try and be a little bit closer to the ERC guys and we will see.”