Abiteboul pushes Sordo to show Sardinia speed

The Alghero-based event is one of Sordo’s strongest, with two wins and podiums on three of the last four Sardinian WRC rounds he has finished.

Following Vodafone Rally de Portugal, team boss Abiteboul said: “Dani has contributed massively to the points for the manufacturers’ standings and has been the support the team needed. We will see what we can do to help him improve his performance even more [in Sardinia].

Sordo said Portugal was good preparation for his Italian return – but a result would depend on making the most of a strong position on the road on Friday’s shortened opening leg.

“Sardinia is a very similar surface to Portugal, but a bit more slippery in places,” he said. “I completed some good gravel kilometres at the last round. This year’s event is a lot more condensed, so we need a really fast start to get us the best possible road position for Saturday onwards.

“It’s an event where road position is really important, so we will see what we can do to optimise that. We need a lot of precision in the car because some passes are really narrow, meaning even more grip is needed to get the car through each pass safely. The target is definitely to finish on the podium, but it would be really nice to go one step further and fight for the victory.”