Flodin aims high with MINI chance

Patrik Flodin plans to compare his times to MINI WRC Team aces Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo when he becomes one of five drivers to debut the new MINI John Cooper Works WRC on Rally d’Italia Sardegna this week.

The Production Car World Rally Championship frontrunner is switching from his Group N Subaru Impreza to one of the Prodrive-developed machines for the gravel event.

Following his test in the car in Italy last week, Swede Flodin said: “On my first run, I didn’t have a good feeling, but then I spent the whole day driving and finally by the end I felt happy. The MINI is a very nice car to drive.”

The 26-year-old continued: “It’ll be very difficult on the first leg, but I hope to get more confidence and speed as the rally goes on. The MINI works drivers Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo are both very fast and have done a lot of kilometres testing in the car. Last [month] I was in Spain and sat with Kris once and he was unbelievably fast. I would like to follow Meeke’s time and get as close as possible to them. I don’t have the experience in the car to win but I also don’t want to be the slowest MINI.”

Flodin has only competed in Sardinia once before and admits he doesn’t have fond memories of the event. “I was leading the PWRC on the second leg when I broke a driveshaft four stages before service and lost a lot of time, so I didn’t have a great result, but I did finish the rally. I like the stages, they are slippery, but I don’t like the heat at all. In fact, I hate it! During our test in the car it was terribly hot - it was hot outside, but inside the car it was like a sauna. I really don’t enjoy the heat.”

Armindo Araujo, who beat Flodin to the PWRC crown in 2010, will also drive a John Cooper Works WRC in Sardinia. The Portuguese was due to test his car yesterday.