Targa Florio - IRC news before SS4

Wiegand hopes to make up more ground in Sicily

Sepp Wiegand has ground to make up if he’s to achieve his goal of a top-five finish on Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia.

After three stages of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge event, Wiegand is in ninth overall 27.5s adrift of overall leader Andreas Mikkelsen on what is only the rising German star’s fourth appearance in a four-wheel-drive car on asphalt.

“I hope I can be in the top five, it’s my wish and I try to push for this but the level of the Italian drivers is very high and it’s a difficult rally,” said the ŠKODA Auto Deutschland driver.

Breen blames tyre compound choice for loss of pace

Craig Breen has blamed dropping down the leaderboard on Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia for his decision to run on soft compound tyres on Friday’s opening loop of stages.

With ambient and ground temperatures continuing to rise, all leading runners have opted for hard compound tyres. However, Breen said he took the decision to use the softer option – designed for cool and damp conditions – in the mistaken belief they would give him an advantage in his HRT Motorsport Peugeot 207 Super 2000.

“It was my decision even though everyone said it was the wrong thing to do,” said Breen. “I had no confidence as a result and I’ve lost a lot of time. It was my fault completely and now we’ll have to try to fight back.”

Breen started Friday’s stages in fourth overall but has slipped to eighth position, 26.9s down on leader and defending Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Andreas Mikkelsen.

Andreucci admits to tyre choice error in bid for seven Targa wins

Multiple Italian champion Paolo Andreucci has blamed an incorrect tyre compound choice for his disappointing start to Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia, where he is currently fourth on an event that he has won six times.

Andreucci selected Pirelli’s RX7 soft tyres, but found that in the warm and slippery conditions his Peugeot Italia 207 Super 2000 was moving about too much for his liking. The Italian star plans some set-up changes to his car at service, which he hopes will help to rectify the situation.

“The people in front of me took the harder tyre and that was the right choice,” said Andreucci. “I wasn’t expecting the stages to be as slippery as they were. We’ve already lost a lot of time, so we need to make a big effort this afternoon.”

Andreucci is not contesting the full Intercontinental Rally Challenge this season, so his priority is the Italian championship – where he currently leads the standings. After three stages in Sicily he is 11.6s behind leader Andreas Mikkelsen.

Targa Florio pace pleases IRC 2WD Cup leader Campedelli

Simone Campedelli says it’s not just the fact he’s leading the IRC 2WD Cup after three stages of Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia that’s giving him reason to be satisfied.

Campedelli is 11th overall in his Procar Rally Team Citroën DS3 R3T but happy with his pace against the leading Super 2000 runners.

“We’ve started really fast and I’m happy that we are within two seconds per kilometre of the leaders,” said the reigning Italian Junior champion. “We lost some time on the last stage because the end is like a hillclimb and that’s not so easy in a two-wheel-drive car but we are happy and we will continue to push.”

Briton Harry Hunt, IRC champion in 2010, is a fine second in class on his Targa Florio debut, 43.8s behind Campedelli. Local hero Andrea Nucita is third, 5.7s adrift of Hunt after encountering fuel pressure issues on Friday’s opening test.

Salento experience helping Kopecky in Sicily

Jan Kopecký says experience gained on Rally del Salento, an Italian championship event held in the south of the country, is helping him to maintain his push for victory on Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia.

At the mid-morning service halt in Termini Imerese, factory ŠKODA Motorsport driver Kopecký trails Andreas Mikkelsen by 1.7s. However, perhaps more significantly is the fact he heads leading Italian drivers Paolo Andreucci and Giandomenico Basso in the overall classification.

“I won Rally del Salento in 2010 and although the stages had a different character to here they were still slippery so this is helping me,” said Kopecký, runner-up in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge standings for the last three seasons.

“Andreas is pushing a lot and maybe we can find some more speed in a few corners by changing the pacenotes but we can’t risk any mistakes, which is not easy on this event because the grip is always changing.”

Basso says there is more to come in Sicily

Giandomenico Basso, a winner of four Intercontinental Rally Challenge events in the past, was pleased by his start to Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia – but he thinks that he could do better in terms of tyre choice and car set-up.

Basso, from the Veneto region of Italy, is currently third in his turbocharged M-Sport Ford Fiesta Regional Rally Car, which he used to lead Giru di Corsica-Tour de Corse last month.

“Like Paolo Andreucci, I went on the soft tyres and it wasn’t a good idea in the end,” said Basso. “Being first on the road I thought this would help me to find more grip, but the pace behind me was really quick, as I expected. As we only had two hours of testing before the event, we didn’t have time to collect all the tyre information we need and that’s probably why we made the wrong choice.”

The double European champion, on only his third rally in the Fiesta, was also struggling to find a good balance with the car. “There’s no doubt it’s a very good car, but I probably need a little more time to get the best out of it,” he concluded.

Consani targets finish as technical problem strikes

Frenchman Robert Consani has prioritised just finishing Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia after an unspecified engine problem put his Renault Mégane RS into ‘safe’ mode on the second stage of the morning.

Consani missed his home round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, Giru di Corsica-Tour de Corse last month, due to a problem with his competition licence and he will now race under a Ukrainian licence for the rest of the season.

“It’s great to be back but this isn’t the start that we wanted,” said Consani, who is co-driven by former IRC champion co-driver Nicolas Klinger. “I have no idea what the problem is: we saw the temperature rise and then the engine went into safe mode. I really hope that our engineer can solve the problem: for now, the priority is just to try and finish.”

Despite the mechanical glitch, Consani is just 11.9s behind Massimiliano Rendina in the battle for IRC Production Cup honours. He holds fourth in the IRC 2WD Cup division.

Mikkelsen plans to go even faster in IRC victory bid

Andreas Mikkelsen admits he can’t afford to lift off in the battle for first place on Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia.

Mikkelsen leads the Intercontinental Rally Challenge event by 1.7s after three stages. But with fellow ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000 driver Jan Kopecký so close behind, Mikkelsen says there will be no let up in his bid for his first victory on asphalt in the IRC.

“The first two stages today were, as expected from the recce, very slippery, especially the last part of stage three, Collesano,” said the ŠKODA UK ace. “We won both so it’s a great start to the rally but it’s very close between Jan and myself so we need to keep doing what we’re doing and continuing to push. I wasn’t pushing to the maximum, just keeping a fast, consistent pace. We’ve just been through the video of the stages and improved our pacenotes so hopefully we’ll be even faster the second time through.”