Championship hits halfway mark in Sardinia

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The 2020 FIA Junior WRC Championship heads to the Italian island of Sardinia for round three, #rally d’Italia #sardegna, entering the second half of this year’s championship.
 
The #rally is the second and final gravel #event of the season in FIA Junior WRC as the championship battle begins to tighten for the future stars of the FIA World #rally Championship. Martins Sesks leads the championship with 47 points following an assertive victory on #rally Estonia. #samipajari took a career best second in Estonia and ate into Sesks’ points advantage by taking eight stage wins on the #rally – the most of any FIA Junior WRC driver in Estonia. #rally Sweden winner and 2019 Rookie Award winner, #tomkristensson, sits third with 29 points. He had his worst result to date in Estonia, taking only one stage win point and retired from the #rally early on. 
 
The trio will resume battle on the Italian gravel in their EcoBoost-powered M Sport Fiesta Rally4 cars. It is Pajari’s first time in Sardinia with Sesks and Kristensson experiencing the rough Italian roads for the first time in 2019.
 
Usually, the #rally can be summarised in three words: rough, hot and dusty. 2020 had better ideas though, following a reshuffled calendar, the #event finds itself in October with much cooler temperatures ushering in a different challenge with higher wind speeds bringing very changeable and unpredictable weather. 
 
The challenge of #rally d’Italia #sardegna is usually characterised by a continuously developing surface as the soft and sandy top surface covers a very hard and immovable bedrock. Should the heavens open the loose top surface will develop into a momentum killing, sludgy buildup pushed to either side of the road revealing a very slippery hard surface underneath.
 
Careful attention will be needed when it comes to writing pace notes with crews having to work hard when considering how corner speeds, braking points and grip levels will change with weather.

The chances of punctures are usually significantly higher on the island of Sardinia thanks to the unforgiving rocks that line its stages. Tyre changes are a simple but essential practice for crews and those well prepared could reap the rewards as #rally could be won or lost on a simple tyre change.

The Pirelli tyres available for crews to choose form will be between 20 Scorpion K4 (hard) and 6 Scorpion K6 (soft) with a maximum of use of 20 tyres including shakedown. Tyre choice could prove pivotal depending on how stage conditions develop and will be at the forefront of each crew’s mind should rain clouds appear.
 
Maciej Woda, FIA Junior WRC Championship Manager, said:
“We have an interesting #rally ahead of us that could really spice things up in the championship. Martins and Tom have both been to Sardinia before but don’t have wet experience on these stages whereas Sami has never been to this #rally before. It will be very interesting to see how the battle in the championship top-three develops, the stages got quite rough in Estonia and we had some very close battles there. It could be, as seen in previous seasons, that stage wins decide the championship and the fight for stage wins on Sardinia will be made more difficult by the Italian crews who know these roads really well.”

47. Martins Sesks / Renars Francis
“I will try to do the same as I did in Estonia. To be confident, drive a consistent pace and be smart. In previous rallies and in WRC generally, it’s not usually the absolute fastest driver that wins, it’s usually the smartest or best all-round driver that wins so we will try to be the smartest.”
 
48. #samipajari / Marko Salminen
“It’s exciting, it will be a really challenging weekend but I am really looking forward to it. I will do my best. Of course I am aiming to win, as always, but sometimes my chances are better than other opportunities. We will see how it goes.”
 
49. #tomkristensson / Joakim Sjöberg
“I had some bad luck and wasn’t really in the rhythm here last year. I didn’t have any stage wins either so I think we need to start the #rally differently this year and continue being better. It’s a very special #rally, I don’t know yet how it will feel but I will do my best, that’s for sure.”
 
50. Ruairi Bell / Darren Garrod
“I’m more familiar with these kinds of roads. Sardinia is a bit similar to Portugal and that’s where we’ve been quite a few times. Another result like in Estonia or better would be ideal. Otherwise it will be to see what we can do and gain more experience.”
 
51. Fabrizio Zaldivar / Fernando Mussano
“We did quite a lot of rallies after Estonia, we had a #rally in France for the French Championship, we were second in the RC4 class which was a good result. We had some problems on the first day but it was still good. We then did a #rally in Spain and we were almost leading there, just four seconds behind the leader. The aim in Sardinia is top five or higher, we were here last year so know the stages. We will push and do our best.”
 
52. Marco Pollara / Maurizio Messina
“Finally it’s my home #rally. #rally Sardinia is beautiful for me and I will push very hard for a good position in the championship.”
 
53. Enrico Oldrati / Elia de Guio
“I rallied last weekend and finished second, it was a good chance to get experience and understand the car before coming here. For sure this home #event will be a good test for us but make no mistake it will be tough.”
 
54. Fabio Andolfi / Stefano Savoia
“I think this #rally will be difficult because the stages are very hard but, we are ready and we want to finish this rally! The last two rallies weren’t very luck for us.”

2020 STAGE WINS
Sami Pajari 9
Martins Sesks 4
Tom Kristensson 4
Raul Badiu 2
Ken Torn 3
Robert Virves 2
Raul Badiu 2
Pontus Lönnström 2 
 
RALLY ESTONIA CLASSIFICATION
1. Martins Sesks / Renars Francis 2:21:20.5
2. #samipajari / Marko Salminen +14.7 
3. Robert Virves / Sander Pruul +37.8 
4. Ruairi Bell / Matt Edwards +5:12.7 
5. Marco Pollara / Maurizio Messina +7:03.9
6. Fabrizio Zaldivar / Fernando Mussano +9:29.8 
7. Enrico Oldrati / Elia de Guio +10:44.7 
8. Raul Badiu / Gabriel Lazar +1:24:46.0
 
RETIRED:
Ken Torn / Kauri Pannas
Pontus Lonnstrom / Stefan Gustavsson
Tom Kristensson / Joakim Sjöberg
Fabio Andolfi / Stefano Savoia
 
RALLY SWEDEN CLASSIFICATION
1. #tomkristensson / Joakim Sjoberg 1:22:51.3
2. Martins Sesks / Renars Francis +37.8
3. Ken Torn / Kauri Pannas +1:00.4
4. #samipajari / Marko Salminen +1:11.6
5. Raul Badiu / Gabriel Lazar +3:23.8
6. Fabrizio Zaldivar / Fernando Mussano +3:54.0
7. Ruairi Bell / Darren Garrod +04:01.0
8. Pontus Lönnström / Stefan Gustavsson +4:14.1
9. Lauri Joona / Ari Koponen +4:15.5
10. Marco Pollara / Maurizio Messina +6:10.2
11. Enrico Oldrati / Elia de Guio +6:14.4
12. Tommaso Ciuffi / Nicolo Gonella +10:11.4
13. Oscar Solberg / Jim Hjerpe +11:05.1
14. Catie Munnings / Ida Lidebjer-Granberg +11:16.2
 
RETIRED:
Fabio Andolfi / Stefano Savoia
Jon Armstrong / Noel O’Sullivan