At the end of the final competitive stage of Rally Italia Sardegna, the Citroën C3 of Craig Breen came sliding to a halt amongst the thick sandy gravel of the Sardinian seaside. His immediate reaction to the slippery conditions was describing the stage as being “bucket and spade” conditions.
While lacking the windswept quality of the Olbia-Tempio coastline, the terrain will still feel like a seamless transition from the dunes of Olbia-Tempio coastline to the Masurian Lake District in the north of Poland, a holiday destination with plenty of sandy gravel covering the 327 kilometers of competitive stages the drivers face this weekend.
The stage conditions mean current championship leader Sébastien Ogier may once again need to break out the dustpan and broom, for he will once again be faced with the unenviable task of road sweeping. While this is part and parcel of the championship in most gravel events, at few rallies is the problem exacerbated as much as Poland.
“I have good memories from Poland having won there twice before, but last year it was probably the worst event for me in terms of road cleaning,” he explained. Despite piloting the dominant Volkswagen Polo R at the time, he struggled to compete at the sharp end of the field, failing to trouble the podium places and settling for sixth in last season’s event.
Now with no car advantage to fall back on, Ogier is once more worried about the impact road position will have on his chances, especially given his tribulations in Sardinia, his fifth-placed finish at the previous round being his worst of the season so far.
“Leading the championship is exactly where we wanted to be at this point in the season, but if it’s dry that will provide something of a disadvantage on Friday and we’ll need to work hard to limit the time loss. It’s so hard to claw back time here, but let’s see what we can do.”
Ogier though has an uncanny knack for making the stars align. The forecast from start to finish is rain. With his disadvantage neutralised and maximum points back on the table, suddenly the dark horses in the title race – Ott Tänak and Jari-Matti Latvala, have lost the upper hand for Friday’s stages. Of these two, Tänak is the one to watch, Poland suiting his flat-out style and giving him a 100% podium rate in the WRC’s top category on the roads surrounding Mikołajki. Latvala has yet to finish better than 5th here, perhaps with the ghost of 2009 – where he crashed out of second in the rally-closing superspecial – still looming large.
Source: The Checkered Flag