Next weekend, Sordo will participate in the Rali Terras d’Aboboreira, which is part of the Portuguese national series.
Sordo will be driving Hyundai’s Rally1 car in the competition, simultaneously preparing well for the Rally de Portugal happening a couple of weeks later. The experience from the gravel competition will be crucial for Sordo, as the veteran has not driven on gravel since last September’s Acropolis Rally Greece.
This season, Hyundai has utilized national series rallies for testing purposes before WRC events. Andreas Mikkelsen, who shares Hyundai’s third car responsibilities with Sordo and Esapekka Lappi, participated in an Italian Rally Championship round earlier in April, tuning up for the Croatia’s WRC tarmac rally.
Other notable names will be participating in next weekend’s Portuguese Rally Championship competition. Competing in the Rally2 class are Nikolay Gryazin, Yohan Rossel, Pierre-Louis Loubet, Jan Solans, and Kris Meeke, among others.
The rally will consist of seven special stages, with a total distance of over one hundred kilometers. The route partly overlaps with that of the WRC event in Portugal in May. However, Sordo will not be allowed to drive on the Amarante special stage, which shares sections with the WRC stage.
Sordo will be driving Hyundai’s third car in the Rally de Portugal in May. The team’s other drivers for the full season are Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak.
This event marks Sordo’s first WRC event of the season, having last competed in the final round of last season in Japan.
