Lambros Athanassoulas

Lambros Athanassoulas
Athanassoulas at the 2011 Acropolis Rally
Personal information
NationalityGreek
Born (1976-11-10) November 10, 1976 (age 47)
World Rally Championship record
Active years2005–2009, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2021–2022
Rallies16
Championships0
Rally wins0
Podiums0
Stage wins0
Total points1
First rally2005 Acropolis Rally
Last rally2022 Acropolis Rally

Lambros Athanassoulas (born November 10, 1976, in Athens) is a Greek rally driver.

Career

Athanassoulas graduated from the American College of Greece and got a BEng in Mechanical Engineering and an M.A. in finance from the University of Westminster.[1] He started racing in 2001, after winning a competition by Greek magazine 4 Wheels and Toyota Hellas.[1] This earned him the chance to drive a Toyota Yaris rally car. In 2005 he won the A5 class of the Greek Rally Championship driving a Ford Puma Kit Car. This led to him becoming an official driver for Ford Motor Hellas. This included making his World Rally Championship debut in a Ford Fiesta S1600 at the 2005 Acropolis Rally. In 2006 Athanassoulas competed in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, as part of the WRC. In 2007 and 2008 he competed at his home event of the WRC in a Group N Subaru Impreza. For the 2009 Acropolis Rally, Athanassoulas competed in a Škoda Fabia S2000, winning the PWRC class and finishing eighth overall.[2] He followed this by winning his class on the 2009 Rally Catalunya on the debut of the new Ford Fiesta R2.[3] He was named Greek Athlete of the Year at the end of 2009 by Status magazine.[4]

Athanssoulas' first start in the highest class was the 2011 Acropolis Rally, when he presented strong pace, but due to retirement on the first leg and returning later under Rally2 rules classified only 19th. He returned to rallying in 2015 with the Skoda Fabia R5 and scored 3rd place in that year's Acropolis Rally, losing only to title contestants Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Craig Breen, he also led the rally at one point. In 2016, he took on the Rallye Monte-Carlo and finished 22nd overall, 8th in the WRC-2 class. Later that year, he contested both of the local ERC events - the 2016 Acropolis Rally, which he finished in second place (only behind the season's runner-up Ralfs Sirmacis) and the 2016 Cyprus Rally. After a long break, Athanassoulas returned once again in 2021. During the revived Acropolis Rally, Athanassoulas drove the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 and therefore became the first customer entry to use the car in World Rally Championship. However, the new car didn't bring him much luck, as he retired on SS3, but returned later. He scored 6th on the power stage, but after Yohan Rossel's disqualification advanced up to power stage place, which allowed him to score 1 point and classify in WRC-3 standings.

WRC results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Points
2005 Lambros Athanassoulas Ford Fiesta S1600 MON SWE MEX NZL ITA CYP TUR GRE
Ret 		ARG FIN GER GBR JPN FRA ESP AUS NC 0
2006 Lambros Athanassoulas Ford Fiesta ST MON SWE MEX ESP
52 		FRA
45 		ARG ITA
52 		GRE GER
31 		FIN
Ret 		JPN CYP TUR AUS NZL GBR
77 		NC 0
2007 Lambros Athanassoulas Subaru Impreza STi N12 MON SWE NOR MEX POR ARG ITA GRE
33 		FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN IRE GBR NC 0
2008 Lambros Athanassoulas Subaru Impreza WRX STi MON SWE MEX ARG JOR ITA GRE
26 		TUR FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN GBR NC 0
2009 Team Greece Škoda Fabia S2000 IRE NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE
8 		20th 1
Ford Fiesta R2 POL FIN AUS ESP
25 		GBR
2011 Team Greece Ford Fiesta RS WRC SWE MEX POR JOR ITA ARG GRE
19 		FIN GER AUS FRA ESP GBR NC 0
2013 Team Greece Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X MON SWE MEX POR ARG GRE
Ret 		ITA FIN GER AUS FRA ESP GBR NC 0
2016 Laskaris Foundation Team Greece Škoda Fabia R5 MON
22 		SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER CHN
C 		FRA ESP GBR AUS NC 0
2021 Lambros Athanassoulas Hyundai i20 N Rally2 MON ARC CRO POR ITA KEN EST BEL GRE
36 		FIN ESP MNZ NC 0
2022 Lambros Athanassoulas Hyundai i20 N Rally2 MON SWE CRO POR ITA KEN EST FIN BEL GRE
16 		NZL ESP JPN NC 0

PWRC results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pos. Points
2008 Lambros Athanassoulas Subaru Impreza WRX STi SWE ARG GRE
12 		TUR FIN NZL JPN GBR NC 0
2009 Team Greece Škoda Fabia S2000 NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE
1 		AUS GBR 9th 10

References

  1. ^ a b ":: Athanassoulas Rally Team - Crew". www.athanassoulas.gr. Retrieved July 17, 2023.
  2. ^ "World Rally Championship - News - P-WRC: Emotional win for Athanassou…". Archived from the original on February 9, 2013.
  3. ^ "Fiesta R2 shines as Athanassoulas takes class victory in Spain". automobilsport.com. Archived from the original on October 1, 2011. Retrieved July 17, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ "Athanassoulas Rally Team - Home".