Štefan Svitko was the fastest motorcycle rider at the Greece Rally 2026 on his Ducati 450. However, the published final classification awards the overall win to Benjamin Harvey-Grounds on a Kove. Behind this apparent contradiction lies the key story of the rally week: Svitko’s high pace, a successful counterattack by Kove – and a withdrawal whose background is not officially explained.
As of 28 September 2026. Race review of the Greece Rally, 20 to 26 September.
Svitko sets an early mark on Ducati
The prologue had already gone to Svitko. On the first long stage on Monday, the Slovak then made a big difference: the later overall list shows 5:13:58 hours for the day, against 6:19:33 for Harvey-Grounds. That one stage alone put more than an hour between the two.
The report on the opening stage describes Svitko as the fastest rider on the 283-kilometre mountain stage. What promised to be an appealing brand duel between Ducati and Kove thus became an early chase for the Briton. Source: RallyTracks, 21 September.
The marathon days consolidate the order
Svitko also stayed in front on the way to the marathon bivouac. On Tuesday he set the fastest time on both stages. According to the daily report, the second stage, Rodopi, was significantly shortened compared with the original schedule. Harvey-Grounds kept in touch in the daily result: the gap between the two was 6:07 minutes at the end. Source: RallyTracks, 22 September.
On Wednesday the route led back to Serres via the Kavala region. Svitko again won both stages; Harvey-Grounds lost a further 10:02 minutes. After four days, the gap in the overall standings at the time was 1:21:44 hours. The Ducati set the pace, with the Kove its nearest pursuer. Source: RallyTracks, 23 September.
Bosdakas: Kove breaks the streak
Thursday brought the counterattack. On the short Bosdakas stage, Harvey-Grounds was 1:11 minutes faster than Svitko. The Kove rider won the day’s classification in 35:27 minutes, ahead of the Ducati rider in 36:38 minutes.
That made Harvey-Grounds more than a rider waiting for a mistake from the favourite: on this day he beat Svitko head-on out on the course. The large overall deficit, however, shrank only slightly as a result. Source: RallyTracks, 24 September.
Friday and finale: fastest times despite withdrawal
On Friday Svitko was ahead again in the combined daily time: 3:11:45 against 3:20:59 hours. The individual stages are interesting: Harvey-Grounds completed the day’s second stage 2:15 minutes faster. The Kove thus made another sporting statement, even though Svitko carried the larger daily advantage from the first stage. Source: official daily results, day 6.
On Saturday Svitko drove the fastest final stage in 1:54:35 hours. Dennis Schans on a Husqvarna FE 350 followed ahead of Harvey-Grounds. In the final overall classification, Svitko nevertheless appears separately, with an asterisk and without a position. His time listed there, 17:09:09 hours, is arithmetically 1:43:10 ahead of Harvey-Grounds.
The explanation is only partly established: citing information from the bivouac, RallyTracks reports that Svitko withdrew voluntarily from the competition after a crash on the sixth day. His entry had mainly served to test the Ducati. The published results list itself does not explain the special status. An official reason therefore cannot be derived from this document; one should not speak of a disqualification. Source: RallyTracks, final report.
The published final motorcycle classification
| Position | Rider | Motorcycle | Total time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Benjamin Harvey-Grounds | Kove 450 Rally | 18:52:19 |
| 2 | Ferdinand Kreidl | KTM EXC 450 | 20:09:03 |
| 3 | Robert Parry | KTM EXC 450 | 20:20:30 |
| Unplaced, with asterisk | Štefan Svitko | Ducati 450 | 17:09:09 |
Source for the final classification and the comparison times mentioned: official overall classification after day 7, available under “Final Results” on the organiser’s website. Svitko’s separately listed time is not a classified overall win.
What remains of the Ducati v Kove duel
Svitko set the fastest times on the Ducati, while Harvey-Grounds gave Kove the classified win. Both belong in this review. The Kove could not close the big gap from the start of the week in sporting terms, but made its own statements with the Bosdakas win and the faster second stage on Friday.
The result hardly works as a blanket technical comparison of the brands: different riders, set-ups and objectives influence the course of events. Even so, the Greece Rally 2026 leaves a remarkable picture – a Ducati at the top of the stopwatch and a Kove at the top of the published final classification.
Image credits
- Course photo ALX5387: © RallyCool Photography, Matteo & Lorenzo Longobardi. Original image, published on the official Greece Rally website. Photographer credit in the image, copyright RALLYCOOL in the metadata.
- Forest section ALX3299: © RallyCool Photography, Matteo & Lorenzo Longobardi. Original image, published on the official Greece Rally website. Photographer credit in the image, copyright RALLYCOOL in the metadata.
- Title and social media banners: AI-generated editorial illustrations featuring an anonymous rider; not documentary race photographs. Basis for the rally logo: official Greece Rally 2026 logo template. The organiser photos mentioned served as terrain reference.