- Gearbox trouble slowed Rovanperä

At the start of the second day, Rovanperä's goal was to eliminate Markko Märtin's 4.8-second lead, taken during the Saturday leg (SS 9, Mendenitsa, 17.34 km). But the lead only narrowed by 0.8 seconds, because Rovanperä started having the same problem that had slowed Richard Burns on the first day. "We lost second gear right away in the ninth stage, but things were still OK, since you can use third to replace second pretty well," says Rovanperä.

The real problem started immediately during the next stage (SS 10, Bauxities 1, 23.45 km), when third gear stopped working also.

"That was a catastrophe, because the car doesn't really want to move when you're shifting from first to fourth. There were a lot of hills that we had to drive up in first. At one curve the car stopped and none of the gears would catch. We lost at least a minute there. The third stage was pure uphill, so we drove that in first with the limiter popping and the turbos red," Rovanperä said, clearly disappointed at losing almost three-and-a-half minutes during the morning's three stages.

The crew managed to change the gearbox during the 20-minute service without delaying the next start. By taking the top time in the next stage (SS 12, Rengini 2, 11.84 km) and third in the repeat of the rally's longest stage (SS 13, Elatia-Zell 2, 34.68 km), the gap between Rovanperä and the lead cars narrowed a little. By the end of the day, Rovanperä, who had been as far behind as ninth, had climbed back up to seventh in the overall standings, three-and-a-half minutes behind the lead cars.

Standings after 2/3 legs and 16/22 stages
1. Markko Märtin, Ford, 3 h 30'25,8" (83.1 km/h)
2. Carlos Sainz, Citroen, + 00'55,8"
3. Petter Solberg, Subaru, + 01'17,0"
4. Colin McRae, Citroen, + 01'33,6"
5. Tommi Mäkinen, Subaru, + 02'05,0"
6. Richard Burns, Peugeot, + 02'10,7"
7. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, + 03'31,1"
8. Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot, + 03'34,9"

Ensuring WRC points during the last leg
On the last day of the Acropolis Rally, Harri Rovanperä and Risto Pietiläinen's tactic was to drive a clean drive and maintain their standing. The day was made more interesting by new stages that were driven twice. The first time around, Rovanperä preserved his overall standing by pulling in sixth and seventh in the stage times.

"The guys still had a tough race going. Markko looked like he was pretty much going to do his thing, but Carlos, Petteri, and Colin all still wanted second. Riku's still trying to take Tommi's fourth. At this point it doesn't make any sense to go totally crazy, when the cars in front have a minute-and-a-half lead, but Gilles (Panizzi) has been so enthusiastic today that we've had to drive some serious rally," said Rovanperä during Sunday's service stop.

Harri Rovanperä drove fifth and sixth place during the final three stages. Harri placed sixth in the final standings and earned three WRC points for Peugeot and for himself. Peugeot maintained its position as number one in the manufacturer standings and Harri now has eight points, for 11th place in the drivers' world championship.

Final Results, SS 22/22
1. Markko Märtin, Ford, 4 h 53'40,5" (81.0 km/h)
2. Carlos Sainz, Citroen, + 00'46,0"
3. Petter Solberg, Subaru, + 00'52,7"
4. Richard Burns, Peugeot, + 02'06,6"
5. Tommi Mäkinen, Subaru, + 02'12,3"
6. Harri Rovanperä, Peugeot, + 03'44,7"
7. Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot, + 03'54,3"
8. Colin McRae, Citroen, + 04'05,0"