Lambros Athanassoulas (born November 10, 1976, in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

) is a Greek rally driver.

Career

Athanassoulas graduated from the

American College of Greece The American College of Greece (ACG) is a private college, graduate business school and high school in Agia Paraskevi, Greece. It is the oldest American-accredited college in Europe and a not-for-profit institution. History ACG was founded i ...

and got a

BEng A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded to a college graduate majoring in an engineering discipline at a higher education institution. In the United Kingdom, a Bac ...

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

and an M.A. in finance from the

University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

. He started racing in 2001, after winning a competition by Greek magazine 4 Wheels and Toyota Hellas. This earned him the chance to drive a

Toyota Yaris The is a supermini/subcompact car sold by Toyota since 1999, replacing the Starlet and Tercel. Up to 2019, Toyota had used the Yaris nameplate on export versions of various Japanese-market models, with some markets receiving the same vehicl ...

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 The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

debut in a

Ford Fiesta The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car that was marketed by Ford from 1976 to 2023 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and had been positioned below the ...

S1600 at the 2005

Acropolis Rally The Acropolis Rally of Greece () is a Rallying, rally competition that is part of the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship (WRC). The rally is held on very dusty, rough, rocky and fast mountain roads in mainland Greece, usually dur ...

. 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 In relation to international motorsport governed by the FIA, Group N refers to regulations providing "standard" large-scale series production vehicles for competition. They are limited in terms of modifications permitted to the standard specifi ...

Subaru Impreza The is a compact car that has been manufactured by the Japanese automaker Subaru since 1992. It was introduced as a replacement for the Leone, with the predecessor's EA series engines replaced by the new EJ series. It is now in its sixth g ...

. For the

2009 Acropolis Rally The 2009 Acropolis Rally of Greece was the 56th running of the Acropolis Rally and the seventh round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season. The rally consisted of 17 special stages. Ford's Mikko Hirvonen took his first win of the season and ...

, Athanassoulas competed in a

Škoda Fabia S2000 The Škoda Fabia S2000 is a Super 2000 rally car built by Škoda Motorsport. It is based upon the Škoda Fabia road car. History It made its début at Rallye Monte Carlo 2009, with factory team Škoda Motorsport and drivers Jan Kopecký and ...

, winning the

PWRC The FIA Production car World Rally Championship, or PWRC, was a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, contested mainly by Group N rally cars. History The series started in 1987 as ''FIA Cup for Production Rally Drivers'' and o ...

class and finishing eighth overall. He followed this by winning his class on the

2009 Rally Catalunya The 2009 RACC Rallye de Catalunya was the eleventh round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season and the 45th running of Rally Catalunya. The rally consisted of 18 special stages and took place between October 2–4, 2009. Citroën's Sébastie ...

on the debut of the new Ford Fiesta R2. He was named Greek Athlete of the Year at the end of 2009 by ''

Status Status (Latin plural: ''statūs''), is a state, condition, or situation, and may refer to: * Status (law) ** Legal status, in law ** Political status, in international law ** Small entity status, in patent law ** Status conference ** Status c ...

'' magazine. Athanssoulas' first start in the highest class was the

2011 Acropolis Rally The 2011 Acropolis Rally was the seventh round of the 2011 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over 17–19 June, and was based in Loutraki, outside the country's capital, Athens. The rally was also the fourth round of the Super ...

, 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 Craig Breen (2 February 1990 – 13 April 2023) was an Irish rally driver who last competed part time for the Hyundai team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). He won the 2012 Super 2000 WRC, scoring class wins in the Monte Carlo Rally, Wale ...

, he also led the rally at one point. In 2016, he took on the

Rallye Monte-Carlo The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo) is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. From its inception in 1911 by Prince Albert I, the rally was intended to demonstra ...

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 Ralfs Sirmacis is a rally driver from Latvia, and is the winner of multiple European Rally Championship events. ERC results ERC Junior results References External linksProfile on ewrc-results.com
1994 births Living people European R ...

) and the 2016 Cyprus Rally. After a long break, Athanassoulas returned once again in 2021. During the revived

, Athanassoulas drove the

Hyundai i20 N Rally2 The Hyundai i20 N Rally2 is a rally car developed and built by Hyundai Motorsport to Group Rally2 specifications. It is based upon the Hyundai i20 N road car and is the successor to Hyundai i20 R5. Competition history The car was debuted at the ...

and therefore became the first customer entry to use the car in

. 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

PWRC results

References

External links

Athanassoulas Rally Team

Profile at eWRC-results.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athanassoulas, Lambros 1976 births Alumni of the University of Westminster Greek rally drivers Living people World Rally Championship drivers Sportspeople from Athens