Their hopes of a top result were shattered already on the first proper day of running when their Toyota suffered a puncture. On Saturday, the duo had to retire after going off the road and damaging the car.
Rovanperä’s pace wasn’t particularly convincing on the Greek gravel roads either, and they ultimately finished 27th overall.
“Not much to take away from this one – just four points from the Power Stage. I guess we did get to test a few things on the car to see what might work and what doesn’t,” Halttunen told RallyJournal.com.
“But it’s clear from both Kalle’s comments and the results that we’re a bit lost with this combination,” Halttunen added, referring to the difficulties in finding the right setup for the updated car and the Hankook tyres.
After Saturday’s retirement, Rovanperä and Halttunen found themselves in an unpleasant situation. The Finnish duo had to wait for a long time in the blazing heat and under attack from insects for a ride back to the service area.
“We were out there for three hours surrounded by horseflies. That’s why we kept all our gear on – there were probably a million of them, and it was really dusty as well,” Halttunen recalled.
“Thankfully the marshals gave us some water. It’s not very nice to be stuck in the middle of the forest, but we tried to watch a bit of the rally while we waited,” he added with a laugh.
Rovanperä and Halttunen managed to salvage a small consolation at the end of the rally, setting the second-fastest time on the Power Stage and collecting four championship points. Still, the overall feeling was one of disappointment.
“Right now, the combination of car and tyres is still really difficult for us. So in that sense, it wasn’t much of a consolation. But of course, we got good points for the team. The best thing is that we managed to hold Hyundai off a bit – they only gained a few points on us,” Halttunen said.
“But there’s a lot of work to be done if we want to fight for the championship the way we’d like to.”
