Italian Rally Championship leader and official Pirelli test driver Paolo Andreucci is celebrating after winning Round Three of the series: the 30th Rally Costa Smeralda, which finished in Olbia on Saturday evening (7 May) as part of the Rally d’Italia Sardegna.
The five-time Italian champion and co-driver Anna Andreussi drover their Peugeot Italia 207 S2000, with which Andreucci won the Italian title last year. Despite the rough conditions on the punishing rock-strewn tracks, Andreucci and his Pirelli Scorpion gravel tyres proved untroubled.
Based in Olbia on the north east coast of Sardinia, the event followed directly behind the World Rally Championship (WRC) Rally d’Italia Sardegna. This posed an added challenge for the Italian series drivers as they tackled the roads that had been churned up by the turbocharged four-wheel drive cars to create large ruts and reveal sharp stones.
Protecting tyres in these conditions can be a tough test, but Andreucci found his Pirelli Scorpion rubber helped guide him through the treacherous roads without fail. “If you look at the first three stage times I am slower than the other drivers, but this was our strategy,” he said. “The first four stages are really rough so my plan was to get through stages one to three without damage, before changing to new tyres ahead of stage four, which was the most challenging on the cars.”
The strategy worked perfectly for Andreucci with several drivers retiring on the longest stage of the event. They included Skoda Rally Team Italia’s Andreas Mikkelsen, who had been leading the event courtesy of several strong stage times before an impact damaged his Fabia Super 2000’s engine and forced him to retire. “The tyres performed exactly how I wanted them to… they didn’t let me down,” added Andreucci.
Andreucci drove the first day of the rally, on the hard and rocky roads to the west of the island, on the harder compound Scorpion K2s before changing to medium compound K4s for the Saturday stages, which took place on the sandier roads to the north.
Rally Costa Smeralda took place over eight stages and comprised a total of 138.58 competitive kilometres.
Andreucci will resume his Italian championship on the Rally Targa Florio from 5 – 6 June.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D2bHiydSNI]
YouTube video uploaded by Quadboy88.