IRC Sanremo preview : The competitors

Juho Hanninen and Jan Kopecky may well be team-mates at Skoda Motorsport but the Fabia-mounted drivers are locked in a close title battle. Hanninen, from Finland, is in the driving seat following Kopecky’s crash on the previous round, last month’s Barum Czech Rally Zlin, which means that Kopecky must win in Italy to maintain his bid for top championship honours.

Hanninen, 29, has upped his pace on asphalt significantly in 2010, but Kopecky still has the edge when it comes to driving on sealed-surfaces and starts as one of the favourites for victory.

As well as contesting the IRC this year, the Czech has been tackling the Italian championship, thereby giving him a greater knowledge of the terrain but also the fearsome competition the local drivers will provide.

Most notable of these is veteran Paolo Andreucci, who finished second on June’s Rally d’Italia-Sardegna in his Peugeot 207 S2000 and was a winner in Sanremo in 2006. He heads a rejuvenated Peugeot assault, which includes Kris Meeke, the IRC champion and last year’s Sanremo winner, Frenchman Bryan Bouffier, Belgian talent Thierry Neuville and Portugal’s Bruno Magalhaes, who returns to the IRC after skipping the last round.

The Abarth line-up of Giandomenico Basso and Luca Rossetti is packed with experience and potency. The pair, both IRC event winners in the past, will have the wide-track suspension Grande Punto at their disposal and are set to shine. Basso missed last year’s event to contest a clashing European championship round so will be anxious to add to his 2008 Sanremo victory. Former IRC 2WD Cup frontrunner Manuel Villa and the experienced Renato Travaglia are two other Abarth runners in Sanremo.

When it comes to experience few drivers in the field possess as much knowledge of the Ligurian roads as Gilles Panizzi, who returns to frontline rallying in a works PROTON Satria Neo. The 44-year-old from France has won in Sanremo on three occasions and will be hoping his renowned pace and expertise on asphalt will provide a change of fortune for the Malaysian firm, not to mention a huge buzz for the thousands of fans lining the route. Capable Northern Irishman Niall McShea will continue in the second car.

Like Panizzi, Freddy Loix also has extensive knowledge of the Sanremo stages and will be anxious to maintain his staggering 100 per cent winning record in the third factory Fabia on what is likely to be his fourth and final outing of the IRC season. The Belgian prepared for Sanremo by finishing second on his domestic championship Omloop van Vlaanderen rally recently. Other Fabia drivers on the entry include Skoda UK Motorsport’s Guy Wilks, a three-time podium finisher this season and Skoda Italia’s young gun Marco Signor.

Norway’s Andreas Mikkelsen is the lead M-Sport Ford Fiesta driver and is highly rated. Fellow Fiesta youngster Umberto Scandola, from Italy, also has potential, while Andrea Navarra has won in the IRC in the past. Andrea Perego is the highest-seeded Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer driver. However, for the first time on the IRC this year there will be no Subaru Imprezas in action.

Some of the names to watch out for in the IRC 2WD Cup include Honda Civic drivers Sandro Sottile and Laszlo Vizin, former class champion Marco Cavigioli and M-Sport Ford Fiesta R2 runner Harry Hunt, who claimed IRC two-wheel drive glory during the visit to Sardinia in June.