WRC – Hyundai Motorsport leads Rally Italia Sardegna

Hyundai Motorsport holds the provisional lead of Rally Italia Sardegna, round six of the revised FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), at the conclusion of the opening day.

Dani Sordo and Carlos del Barrio, in their first WRC outing since Rally México in March, scored four stage wins, to top the classification by 17.4-seconds. The Spaniards, memorable winners of last year’s Sardinian round, enjoyed a trouble-free start to their second event of the season, underscoring the potential of the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC on the gravel roads.

Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul find themselves in a close battle, as the Belgian crew moved up to third place on Friday’s closing stage. It was a tough start to the event for Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja as they lost time in the morning due to a suspension related issue. They hold eighth overall but showed more representative pace in the afternoon.

Friday’s schedule covered six stages in total – a repeated loop of Tempio Pausania (SS1/SS3 – 12.08km) and Erula-Tula (SS2/SS4 – 21.78km), followed by an afternoon run through Sedini-Castelsardo (SS5 – 14.72km) and Tergu-Osilo (SS6 – 12.81km). A 40-minute service in the mid-afternoon offered crews the chance to make adjustments for the final two stages.

All three crews showed improved performance on the third loop with Neuville and Tänak making up important ground. In addition to Sordo’s four stage wins (SS2, SS4, SS5 and SS6), Hyundai Motorsport took two 1-2 results (SS4, SS5) and a clean sweep of the three fastest times on the final stage of the day (SS6).  

Crew Notes: Dani Sordo / Carlos del Barrio (#6 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• First rally since Mexico and four stages wins – SS2/SS4/SS5/SS6
• Leading the rally by 17.4-seconds at the end of the first day

Sordo said: “I am happy to be back in the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC and pleased to return to this rally which has so many special memories from last year. I have been feeling really competitive all day and some of the stages have been really nice. We made a good tyre choice and we are in an encouraging position. It is only the first day, so we have to keep our feet on the ground. We want to continue like this for the rest of the rally; everyone is pushing hard but we’re here to fight.”

Crew Notes: Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (#11 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• Handling issues hampered the crew’s morning loops
• Belgians moved up from fifth to third as the day progressed

Neuville said: “Honestly speaking I was expecting better from our day. We didn’t have a great start to the rally on this morning loops. We weren’t comfortable with the settings of the car. We did the maximum to improve our times by trying some different things. I was able to push a bit – actually I pushed quite hard in SS4 and that showed as we set the second fastest time. We made the necessary changes to the car for the afternoon and I felt immediately more comfortable. Unfortunately, and bizarrely, we stalled twice today. It never happened to me before, but the second time the car wouldn’t restart. We lost about 12 seconds in all, which is important time in such a close battle. Tomorrow, with the changes we’ve made, I am confident we will have better pace.”

Crew Notes: Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (#8 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)

• Suspension problem saw the crew lose significant time during the morning
• Representative pace in the final loop saw them move into eighth overall

Tänak said: “It has been a demanding day and we’re obviously disappointed. We were getting some suspension issues from the start of the day, and it proved to be something that we could not repair on the road sections with the tools and bits that we had. It is difficult to say what happened exactly, but we could do nothing about it. In the afternoon stages, everything was working fine from our side, just a big amount of cleaning but generally no drama and no surprises. We will try to keep going as we did this afternoon; our position is not great so let’s see. Hopefully the fight is now a bit more straightforward.”

Team Principal Andrea Adamo: “It’s been a bittersweet day for us; sweet because we now have good overall standings for Dani and Carlos, who have done a top job today to take an early lead. Their performance has been helped, of course, by their later starting position, but you still have to be able to take the good chances when they present themselves, and they’ve had an amazing day. Thierry and Nicolas, after a slightly difficult start, have caught up well to hold third. Ott and Martin had a problem this morning with the suspension, another issue that should not have occurred. That makes me very sad because without it we could have been in an even stronger situation. Again, I stress that these things should not happen, but we have to be focused to prepare the cars for tomorrow. Such opportunities cannot and must not be missed.”

Saturday at a glance

• Six more stages will be run on Saturday with an early start for the opening stages Monte Lerno (22.08km) and Coiluna-Loelle (15km)
• That loop will be repeated in the run-up to lunchtime, before an early afternoon 40-minute service.
• Friday’s final two stages Sedini-Castelsardo and Tergu-Osilo will be the last tests on Saturday, bringing the day’s total to 101.69km.

Classification after Day One

Press release Hyundai Motorsport