Sardinia is another rally in the current shortened - event format. Even shorter than the Acropolis Rally earlier this month this event will last just two full days, the first day (Friday) being excessively long from 0630 in the morning until 2230 at night. Like the annual Neste Oil Rally Finland, this event is to finish on Saturday, not a Sunday, and like the Acropolis the schedule includes one controversial night time gravel stage, when teams are hoping for help from the weather. In Greece the night time stage passed without problems because the organisers ran the top cars at four minute intervals and also there was a very unusually high wind on the night. For the Sardinia event the organisers are still planning to run the cars through the night stage at two minute intervals, and also there is no plan to allow competitors to make a reconnaissance at night time as at the Acropolis. The result of the 2009 Sardinia Rally was heavily related to Jari-Matti Latvala running first car on the road on the final morning in conditions when early morning still air caused serious visibility problems for everyone else behind - without the additional hazard of night.
The other special feature of this year's Sardinia Rally will be the Ceremonial Start in the historic city of Sassari on the Thursday evening. Not-to-miss features of the event are the traditional Monte Lerno stage with its spectacular mid stage jump and the dusty Gallura stage done twice on the Friday evening, the second time at night. In addition to the world championship rally the famous old Costa Smeralda Rally will be held with a route which intertwines with the WRC event, for national competitors. The headquarters, service park and finish of the rally will be held at Olbia.
Much of the background behind this year's event is centred in the late decision by the Italian motorsport federation to nominate Sardinia as their chosen location to run their country’s world championship qualifier, and then in turn the late decision by the FIA to decide that the rally should run this year in mid summer, eight months after the event was held in 2012. The new June date also means that the annual road rebuilding work after the ravages of the winter are not expected to be finished in time.
The Volkswagen I team leads the Manufacturers’ series by 18 points from Citroen Total Abu Dhabi with the Qatar M-Sport team in third, but nearly 100 points behind Volkswagen. In the Drivers’ championship VW now hold the top two places with Sebastien Ogier ahead of his teammate by 52 points, while Jari-Matti Latvala is ahead of Mikko Hirvonen by 13 points. The best placed Qatar team driver is one of their second team representatives Thierry Neuville, holding fifth spot. In the WRC2 series, Abdulaziz Al Kuwari leads Nicolas Fuchs, who remains the leading Production Car driver, by nine points. Category winner in Greece Robert Kubica now holds sixth place. No WRC3 competitors have contested the last two rounds of the series so the points remain with Sebastien Chardonnet leading Bryan Bouffier by 18 points.
The main difference in the entry compared with Greece is that the Citroen DS3 R3 cars are back so there are competitors in WRC3, though this event does not qualify for the Junior series. Michal Kosciuszko has been promised a Ford Fiesta WRC from M-Sport to drive instead of the Motorsport Italia entry while Oleksii Tamrazov has lent his Fiesta WRC to PG Andersson. Daniel Oliveira has told the organisers that he has withdrawn his Fiesta WRC entry. At the moment there are few changes in WRC2 with only one Skoda, this time Sepp Wiegand instead of Rashid Al Ketbi, who now drives a Subaru. Good news is that there are ten entries in WRC3 (two-wheel-drive), all Citroen R3T cars with one new entry from French driver Stephane Consani. Entry details for Costa Smeralda Rally have not yet been released.
Sardinia is another rally in the current shortened - event format. Even shorter than the Acropolis Rally earlier this month this event will last just two full days, the first day (Friday) being excessively long from 0630 in the morning until 2230 at night. Like the annual Neste Oil Rally Finland, this event is to finish on Saturday, not a Sunday, and like the Acropolis the schedule includes one controversial night time gravel stage, when teams are hoping for help from the weather. In Greece the night time stage passed without problems because the organisers ran the top cars at four minute intervals and also there was a very unusually high wind on the night. For the Sardinia event the organisers are still planning to run the cars through the night stage at two minute intervals, and also there is no plan to allow competitors to make a reconnaissance at night time as at the Acropolis. The result of the 2009 Sardinia Rally was heavily related to Jari-Matti Latvala running first car on the road on the final morning in conditions when early morning still air caused serious visibility problems for everyone else behind - without the additional hazard of night.
The other special feature of this year's Sardinia Rally will be the Ceremonial Start in the historic city of Sassari on the Thursday evening. Not-to-miss features of the event are the traditional Monte Lerno stage with its spectacular mid stage jump and the dusty Gallura stage done twice on the Friday evening, the second time at night. In addition to the world championship rally the famous old Costa Smeralda Rally will be held with a route which intertwines with the WRC event, for national competitors. The headquarters, service park and finish of the rally will be held at Olbia.
Much of the background behind this year's event is centred in the late decision by the Italian motorsport federation to nominate Sardinia as their chosen location to run their country’s world championship qualifier, and then in turn the late decision by the FIA to decide that the rally should run this year in mid summer, eight months after the event was held in 2012. The new June date also means that the annual road rebuilding work after the ravages of the winter are not expected to be finished in time.
The Volkswagen I team leads the Manufacturers’ series by 18 points from Citroen Total Abu Dhabi with the Qatar M-Sport team in third, but nearly 100 points behind Volkswagen. In the Drivers’ championship VW now hold the top two places with Sebastien Ogier ahead of his teammate by 52 points, while Jari-Matti Latvala is ahead of Mikko Hirvonen by 13 points. The best placed Qatar team driver is one of their second team representatives Thierry Neuville, holding fifth spot. In the WRC2 series, Abdulaziz Al Kuwari leads Nicolas Fuchs, who remains the leading Production Car driver, by nine points. Category winner in Greece Robert Kubica now holds sixth place. No WRC3 competitors have contested the last two rounds of the series so the points remain with Sebastien Chardonnet leading Bryan Bouffier by 18 points.
The main difference in the entry compared with Greece is that the Citroen DS3 R3 cars are back so there are competitors in WRC3, though this event does not qualify for the Junior series. Michal Kosciuszko has been promised a Ford Fiesta WRC from M-Sport to drive instead of the Motorsport Italia entry while Oleksii Tamrazov has lent his Fiesta WRC to PG Andersson. Daniel Oliveira has told the organisers that he has withdrawn his Fiesta WRC entry. At the moment there are few changes in WRC2 with only one Skoda, this time Sepp Wiegand instead of Rashid Al Ketbi, who now drives a Subaru. Good news is that there are ten entries in WRC3 (two-wheel-drive), all Citroen R3T cars with one new entry from French driver Stephane Consani. Entry details for Costa Smeralda Rally have not yet been released.