On 28 June 2026, Robert Virves ended the EKO Acropolis Rally Greece at the head of the WRC2 field. He had beaten his own teammate to do it: Andreas Mikkelsen, the 2024 WRC2 champion and a former Hyundai works driver. On one of the roughest gravel rallies in the world, the younger man had the measure of the elder.
Where it was decided
The Acropolis does not reward speed alone. Based this year in Loutraki, on the Gulf of Corinth, the rally ran over seventeen special stages and more than 323 kilometres of competitive distance, the eighth round of the season. The route climbed into the mountains on loose, rock-strewn tracks under a hard summer sun. Cars break here. Tyres blister. Drivers who push without judgement are punished before the finish.
Virves read it correctly. Against Mikkelsen, a driver with a decade of top-flight experience and a title already won, the Estonian held his nerve through the long central stages where the surface tears at a car and time is lost in small, expensive mistakes. He kept the Škoda clean where cleanliness counted, and stayed in front. Behind the WRC2 battle, Sébastien Ogier took the outright victory, but within the class it was Virves who prevailed.
The win did not settle the championship. Others in the class scored heavily and the points lead moved on, a reminder that a rally can be won on the road while the title fight tightens elsewhere. Virves left Greece with the trophy, if not the standings.
A second win, and a pattern
This was his second consecutive WRC2 victory, following his win at Safari Rally Kenya. Two rallies, two of the most brutal on the calendar, two results. Kenya tests a car with fesh-fesh and flooding; Greece tests it with heat and stone. To win both, back to back, is not luck. It is a young driver learning the specific discipline of surviving before winning.
The context matters. Virves arrived in WRC2 as a prospect rather than a favourite, one of a generation of Estonian drivers following the road that Ott Tänak opened. Beating a former works driver and reigning-era champion in his own team confirms the step he has taken. He is no longer the promising name on the entry list. He is the one others must answer.
Two rallies. Two wins. The rest of the field now knows his name.
