Roope Korhonen Admits Pace Gap After WRC Greece 2026

Roope Korhonen admitted his performance was not at the required level despite finishing fourth in WRC2 at the 2026 Acropolis Rally Greece.

The Toyota driver was making his first appearance on the Greek event and faced a demanding learning curve from the opening stages. After Friday's first three special stages, Korhonen was only eighth in WRC2, more than 50 seconds behind class leader Andreas Mikkelsen.

His pace improved during Friday afternoon, allowing him to climb to fifth thanks to both stronger driving and problems for rivals. That position remained secure through Saturday before the order changed again on Sunday morning as punctures struck several leading crews.

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Robert Virves inherited the WRC2 lead after Mikkelsen lost time, while Jan Solans' puncture promoted Korhonen to fourth. Despite suffering two punctures on the final special stage, Korhonen reached the finish and held the position.

"It depends on how you look at it. It wasn't a particularly great result. On the positive side, we scored some points because it would have been very easy to make a mistake and come away with nothing. From that perspective it's okay, but in terms of outright pace we were nowhere near where we needed to be. I honestly don't know why," Korhonen said.

Korhonen highlighted the pace of the Skoda crews as one of the clearest weaknesses in his own rally. He admitted he had no answer to their speed and felt his driving never fully came together across the weekend.

"The Skodas were especially quick. We simply had no answer to their pace. From a driving point of view, things just never clicked the way they should have," he explained.

Korhonen was unsure how much his lack of previous Acropolis Rally experience affected the result, but conceded his initial mindset may have been too conservative because he expected the event to be more about survival than attack.

"I probably approached this rally with the wrong mindset. I thought it would be more about survival. But Saturday's stages showed there wasn't really any need to hold back. They were proper rally stages where you could really push. It's hard to say exactly what we were missing, but at least we've gained valuable experience," Korhonen concluded.