The Stobart VK M-Sport Ford team look to attack on the sun-drenched Mediterranean island of Sardinia next week, coming off a high on Rally Argentina where they regained third spot on the Manufacturers’ table. Rally d’Italia Sardegna is the seventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship and the fourth on gravel for the three-strong 2007 Stobart-backed outfit.
Norwegian driver Henning Solberg, with co-driver Cato Menkerud, is currently sixth in the drivers’ standings while Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila move up two spots, to equal seventh, after their impressive fourth overall finish in Argentina last weekend.
This year sees a record number of event entries when 85 crews tackle the 342.86 kilometres of special stage distance next week. Comprising 18 competitive tests, over 50 percent of Rally d’Italia Sardegna will use completely different roads to previous years.
Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean, plays host to Italy’s round of the championship for the third successive year and competitors will face the challenge of sandy, narrow stages littered with rocks just inches from the ultimate racing line. This year organisers have made some of the roads wider in an endeavour to speed up the tempo of this event.
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