PROTAGONISTS AT THE START

There are 85 crews entered in the 2007 Rallyd’Italia Sardegna.

THE FAVOURITE. Everyone is closely watching Sebastien Loeb, who will race with number 1 on the official WRC Citroen C4. The French driver has already won four of the six WRC events.
After the Montecarlo success, he has won the next three rallies (Mexico, Portugal, and Argentina), all of them on gravel roads. Nowadays he is the WRC leader with 48 points, Gronholm has 45 points, and Hirvonen has 36.

THE RIVALS . On WRC Ford Focus number 3 and 4, the Finnish drivers Marcus Gronholm and Mikko Hirvonen, will be Loeb’s rivals. They have already won the Sweden and Norway Rallies and they will try to make Loeb and Citroen’ life difficult.
The result will be very significant for the Manufacturer’s Championship which Ford is leading at the moment with 81 points, followed by Citroen with 72 points.
Dani Sordo, the talented young Spanish driver, will race in a WRC Citroen C4, number 2.

THE OUTSIDER. The Subaru family has introduced the new Impreza 2007 and is demonstrating it to be very competitive. Both Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson, numbers 7 and 8 respectively, are hoping for a podium finish. Other competitive outsiders present at the start will be Henning Solberg, Petter’s brother, racing in a WRC Stobart Ford Focus, number 10, and the young Finnish Jari Matti Lavala, racing in another english manufactured car, number 9. The Austrian Manfred Stohl will be present in aWRC Citroen XSara number 5, Team Kronos.

FORFAIT. Gigi Galli will not start the Rally, due to the Aimont Racing Team’s recent announcement that they will no longer be competing.

SUPER 1600. The Rally d’Italia Sardegna 2007 is also the third Rally valid for the 1600 Junior Super Championship, which the Suzuki Swift S1600 drivers are leading.
The Swedish PG Andersson is leading with 20 points after the Norway and Portugal’ Rallies.
The Estonian driver Urmo Aava has 14 points and Jaan Molder has10 points.