Italians Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini have impressed this weekend finishing fourth on their home event of Rally d’Italia Sardegna; round six of the FIA World Rally Championship. The fantastic achievement also helps the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team edge closer to third in the Manufacturers’ Championship as they narrow the gap to just eight points.
Stobart team-mates Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin dusted off some early cobwebs to finish the event a well earned 12th position. The pair struggled with small setup issues on Friday morning losing a large chunk of time but were able to battle their way back to a solid position by the end of the event.
Galli’s form was on-song from beginning until end and even though he picked up a puncture on stage 2 due to a hard impact with a bank, his Pirelli tyres held up well until the end of the stage. He lost just 70 seconds and finished less than two minutes off the rally winner by the end of today’s leg. Among his multitude of top-three fastest stage times, nine of which he set, stage 4 was his greatest effort which he won by 1.5 seconds over BP Ford Abu Dhabi driver Jari-Matti Latvala. The achievement made it his 15th WRC career stage win.
Unfortunately the event was not the most desirable for Wilson whose setup woes on Friday swayed the balance of his plans for this event. Saturday’s morning loop of stages also saw trouble for the Brit as he lost feeling in his brakes and consequently his confidence over the three opening tests until the problem could be rectified in service.
Galli too was not without incident as he also had a spin on the first run over the 29.31 kilometre Monte Lerno stage. Putting it down to driver error, the spin lost the Italian around 20 seconds and a possible second stage win on his home event.
The event began Thursday evening in the highly-exclusive Porto Cervo holiday resort as 57 crews crossed the ramp for the latest round of the WRC. After a cloudless recce, light drizzle met crews for their departure to the first special stage on Friday. A thunder-storm also hit Service Park on Saturday but, despite two days of bad weather, the stages remained predominately dry throughout the event.
The opening 16 stages of Rally Sardinia took place to the south of Rally HQ which was again based in the industrial town of Olbia in the island’s north east. The final 2.69 kilometre stage which ran to the north of Olbia was unfortunately cancelled after Wilson passed through it due to the large spectator numbers who flocked to see WRC action up close and personal.
The loose gravel stages again proved to be one of the toughest tests on the WRC circuit as crews tackled narrow roads which were lined with large trees and rally-ending rocks. Jumps again were a big showman factor here in Sardinia with two gravity defying leaps amazing crowds on Saturday’s stages – many crews stating it was the highest they had ever travelled in a world rally car.
The Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team will now head to Athens for the BP Ultimate Acropolis Rally of Greece in two weeks time where Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud will re-join the team after serving duties with the Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team this weekend in Sardinia.
| 
|