Last year's winning crew Marco Bianchini and Emanuele Baldaccini in their Lancia Stratos HF have taken a commanding lead on the gravel stages that were a feature of today's second leg of the 7th Historic Acropolis Rally.

The second leg of the 7th Historic Acropolis Rally finished today, reminding everybody of many moments from the past; and one of history's most iconic Italian sports cars, the Lancia Stratos, turned back the clock in fine style to wind up at the top of the timesheets by the end of the day.

Today the crews that started this morning competed on mixed surfaces. After the three opening stages on gravel the cars headed to Mikines, where the mechanics turned the rallycars to asphalt specification for another three special stages. After this marathon, all the cars returned to Loutraki for the end of the Second Leg.

The 2008 edition of the Historic Acropolis Rally consists of a 1,000 kilometre route as far as the 'Sporting' category is concerned. The crews are competing over 22 timed special stages, 16 of which are on asphalt surfaces and their combined length is 150 kilometres. The rest of the stages are being run on gravel and their total length is 70 kilometres. Four special stages will take place during the night. In the 'Regularity' category, the total route distance is 1,400 kilometres and the crews are fighting it out for honours over 45 stages. In this category, speed is not the most important thing, but the details in tracking and the right timing of the crew.

The ceremonial start of the 7th Historic Acropolis Rally took place at the foot of the famous Acropolis on Saturday May 10 at 18:00, with 184 cars, built up until 1981, taking part. The high number of entries once more was expected since the Historic Acropolis Rally is one of the most important events in the FIA Historic European Rally Championship calendar and measures with a coefficient 4, the highest one attainable. Amongst the entrants, 51 crews are competing in the Sporting category, while the other 133 are taking part in the Regularity category. Amongst them are last year’s Sporting category winners Marco Bianchini and Emanuele Baldaccini in their Lancia Stratos HF, as well as the categories 1 and 2 Champions of 2007, Andrea Polli and Ms Vilma Salvi, and Antonio Parisi and Giuseppe D’ Angelo, respectively. Also, in the rally this year are the 2007 European Regularity Trophy winners, local pairing Jason Fotopoulos and Aristotelis Georgiou, in an Alfa Romeo 2000 GT Veloce.

Bianchini and Baldaccini in their fabulous Stratos dominated today's stages. The Italian crew, were the fastest on all the six stages that made up the leg and now they enjoy a very comfortable lead in the Sporting category. That makes them favourites to take a second consecutive win in the Historic Acropolis Rally. "We have no problems today," said Bianchini. "We set the fastest time in all today's stages. Now we hope that we are not going to have any problems in the two remaining legs."

In second place Vassilis and John Velanis turned in another strong performance, which allowed them to enjoy a time difference of 20 seconds from Enrico Brazzoli-Simone Trutalli in the more powerful Porsche 911. The Greek crew were faster than the Italians on gravel and they retained the position they had moved into on tarmac. With a big time difference from third place are the following crew 'Montecristo' and Pallas, with another Ford Escort. Tsapalos and Petropolous in Porsche 911, and Furlan and Borgo fill out the first six places. Today, Likakis and Hatzitheodoridis with another Ford Escort were unlucky, they lost a lot of time with problems involving their engine. Also, Olivier Gillet and Mrs Sandrine Glannaz driving a gorgeous Alfa Romeo Giulia 2000 lost a lot of time when they went off the road during the gravel stage, Klenia.

In the Regularity category it was another tough day with many great battles. At the beginning everything went well, at least until the 17th time trial. On that stage all the positions changed because of the tricky trial and mistakes made by a lot of the crews. So, after another twelve time trials today, Stelios Vanezos and Stelios Kodjamanis driving an MG Roadster are leading the rally. In the second place are John Karoubas and Parashos Makrygiannis, with a Fiat 124 Spider, followed by George Moschovitis and George Pontikogiannis, in another Fiat 124 Sport Coupe.

The third leg, which starts tomorrow morning, is expected to be the most interesting and demanding. The competitors will leave Loutraki to compete on the gravel strewed special stages (Examilia, Mykines, Athikia) before returning Loutraki, for a noon regrouping. During the night, the crews will refasten their seat belts to compete on four asphalt special stages (Gymno, Galata, Douka Vrissi and Gymno again) under the moonlight. The fourth and last day of the rally on Wednesday, will bring the crews back to Attiki, and after four more asphalt special stages (Meletaki, Stefani, Ritsona, Agios Merkourios) they will end up back at the Acropolis where they will climb the finish ramp which will signal the end of the 7th Historic Acropolis Rally.