WRC: New two-day Rally Italia revealed

The organisers of this year's Rally Italia Sardegna have revealed a new two-day itinerary for the event that in 2012 was spread over four days.

In Rally Guide 1, published today, organisers said the abridged schedule had been made possible thanks to a more compact route. The number of stages stays the same at 16 and the total competitive distance is almost unchanged, with this year’s total of 304.7km just one kilometre less than in 2012.

Rally Italia is the seventh round of this year’s world championship and squeezes all of its stage action into Friday 20th and Saturday 21st June.

The main venue of the event continues to be the town of Olbia, which hosts the service park in its commercial harbor complex.

On Thursday last year Rally Italia featured two passes through the 28km Terranova stage, but on Thursday this year the drivers will tackle just the Qualifying Stage followed by a Ceremonial Start from the city of Sassari.

Friday’s competition starts from Olbia and includes a trio of special stages before a Remote Service Zone in Sassari. After they will head towards Castelsardo, along the northern coast of Sardinia, for another three stages before returning to the service park in Olbia. The crews leave again for two more tests, the last of which starts in darkness at 21:28hrs.

On Saturday the competition will go through the areas of Monte Acuto and Gallura. Crews will tackle four stages in the morning, which are repeated in the afternoon after a midday service in Olbia. The first of the afternoon’s tests, the 19.31km Monte Olia, is the Power Stage where bonus championship points will be awarded. The event will close on Saturday evening with a prize giving in Porto Cervo.

This year marks the tenth time the rally will be run in Sardegna since leaving its previous mainland home of Sanremo.