The event’s headquarters has moved back from Olbia to the city of Alghero. An exciting new adventure awaits as Sardinia will debut a new sprint format, starting with a shakedown on Friday morning. Later on Friday, the actual event begins with two special stages run twice.
Saturday will be a long day in Sardinia, featuring eight special stages. On Sunday, the battle for extra points will take place over four stages. Normally, WRC events cover over 300 special stage kilometres, but this time in Sardinia, the total will be 266 kilometres.
“It’s going to be interesting to see the new more compact format in action in Sardinia: it will be a shorter event but not an easier rally, with long days and still quite many kilometres,” says Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala.
“I think it could be even more exciting. Saturday afternoon is especially long and tough with the notorious Monte Lerno stage, and managing the tyres and avoiding the rocks will be key for success.”
Although Toyota has celebrated three wins in the first five WRC events of the season, Hyundai has edged ahead in the manufacturers’ championship by four points. In Sardinia, Latvala wants to see clean performances from all his drivers, as there is no room for retirements.
“It was great to win again in Portugal and our performance there was good, but it wasn’t the best rally for some of our drivers and after some small mistakes we didn’t get so many points,” Latvala summarises, referring to Kalle Rovanperä‘s retirement.
“Hopefully in Sardinia we can maintain the performance and keep all our cars on the road without issues.”
Over the past six years, Hyundai has celebrated five wins in Sardinia. Latvala hopes that the tests on the Mediterranean island earlier in the spring have given the drivers confidence.
“We learned and improved the car in Portugal, and the work done during our test in Sardinia should be suited even better for this rally,” Latvala explains.
Rovanperä is on summer break, so Toyota’s lineup in Sardinia will consist of Sebastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta, and Elfyn Evans.
