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World Rally Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera admits making it back-to-back wins on gravel will be a “difficult job” on Rally Italia Sardegna.
The Finn swept all before him on Rally de Portugal, charging through the pack to record a first victory of his 2023 campaign and, in the process, move to the top of the Championship standings.
However, consolidating the position in a meeting that is relocating from Alghero to Olbia this year is going to prove a tall order, according to the reigning champion, who completed it fifth overall 12 months ago.
“Portugal was a great weekend for us and it was nice to get a victory again,” said the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver. “We will try to continue like this in the next events but we know that Sardinia will be a much more difficult job.
“Of all the rallies in the calendar, I think this one has maybe been the trickiest for me, and if the weather is dry and hot like it usually is in Sardinia, it can be very difficult to be the first car on the road there; perhaps even more so this year with the 50-kilometre stage to be driven on Friday.
“It will be a demanding weekend but, like always, we will push together with the team to get the best result that we can,” he added.
Having been outshone and outgunned on the slower, rougher gravel rounds in 2022, Toyota’s engineers have been bulking up the GR Yaris Rally1 to withstand the punishment meted out by Rally Italia Sardegna and Acropolis Rally Greece.
Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala says he is “excited to see how we perform in Sardinia”, adding: “Last year this event was a bit of a struggle but since then we have made many improvements to the GR Yaris Rally1 for rough gravel conditions, which have worked well in Mexico and in Portugal.
“Normally, Sardinia is hotter than Portugal, and this year on Friday the Monte Lerno stage will be almost 50 kilometres in length; it hasn’t been that long since 2014, and on the second pass especially I am sure tyre management will play a major role.
“It means Kalle could pay a big penalty for needing to open the road on this event, but we will have Sébastien [Ogier] and Elfyn [Evans] in better positions [third and fourth] and hopefully they have the opportunity to challenge for victory,” he added.
