As the FIA World Rally Championship approaches the halfway point, reigning champion and current leader BP-Ford faces what most regard as two of the toughest events of the season in just three weekends. Round seven of the 16-event series takes the team to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia for Rally d’Italia Sardegna (17 - 20 May), a gravel rally which ranks among the most abrasive and demanding of the year.
Following the disappearance of Cyprus and Turkey from the 2007 calendar, Rally d’Italia Sardegna and next month’s Acropolis Rally of Greece are the only Mediterranean gravel events this year and both have a reputation for being hard. In Sardinia a fine sandy surface masks a hard base beneath and once the early starters have swept the loose gravel away, the rocky roads combine with relatively high spring temperatures to demand strong durability from BP-Ford’s BFGoodrich tyres.
Although the rally has been a WRC round for the past three seasons, BP-Ford drivers Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen and team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen cannot say they know the speed tests well. Organisers change much of the route annually and for the third successive year more than half of this year’s special stages will be new. However, the characteristics of the roads are familiar to both drivers as the island is regularly used as a test location by the team.
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