You are here
Home > RALLY NEWS > WRC > THE LOUDON-CLEAR GUIDE TO RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA

THE LOUDON-CLEAR GUIDE TO RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA

The World Rally Championship moves past the halfway point with its annual summer trip to Sardinia next week. And rarely has the series been as finely poised as it is right now.

Hyundai star Thierry Neuville is on top coming into round seven, but he’ll have M-Sport Ford’s reigning world champion Sébastien Ogier hard on his heels as the Frenchman aims to take a fourth win of the season so far.

Courtesy of a road surface which will clean and get faster and faster, the more likely winners are probably found further down the order on Friday. Six, seven and eight on the road are: Elfyn Evans, Jari-Matti Latvala and Craig Breen – those three are in a strong position to make the most of the grip on offer on Friday. And each of those three would dearly love to end Sunday on the top step.

It is, however, impossible to ignore the form man of the moment: Ott Tänak starts third on the road, determined to make up for his disappointment at an early bath in Portugal.

Stuart Loudon’s key stage: SS12/16 Monte Lerno 1 29.11km (18.08 miles)

In isolation, the Monte Lerno stage is a big, big deal. But when you remember the crews will come into this one literally minutes after they’re out of Monti di Ala – the flying finish is just 620 metres before the start of Monte Lerno – then it makes for a seriously tough test. There will barely be time for the tyres and brakes to cool down before they’re put to the sword again.

Depending on the weather, the temperatures and cloud cover – and on where drivers are running on the road and how much gravel is sitting on the surface – it’s not unheard of for the soft tyre to be thrown into the mix for the morning. Unless there’s heavy rain (it was wall-to-wall rain on the island just over a month ago), the choice will, most likely, be more straightforward for the afternoon: five or six hard compounds.

Stuart will be watching… 8 Ott Tänak/Martin Jarveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC)

When Ott and Martin jumped in the harbour 12 months ago they had plenty to celebrate – they had won a round of the World Rally Championship for the first time. Sardinia’s always been a special place for Tänak after he scored his first ever WRC podium here six years ago.

This year he comes with a new car and a new team, but he’s on red-hot form. His speed to win Argentina was exceptional. He missed out last time in Portugal after the Toyota Yaris WRC bounced off some rocks and damaged the cooling package – but that’s only going to make him all the more determined to take back-to-back wins on the Italian island.

Top