Wilks: Caution not speed vital in Sardinia

Guy Wilks says it’s vital that drivers ‘use their heads’ in order to achieve a strong result on Rally d’Italia-Sardegna this weekend.

The Škoda UK Motorsport, currently third in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge drivers’ championship standings, is chasing his first IRC win of the season in his Fabia S2000 alongside co-driver Phil Pugh.

He said: “The stages are very narrow in places, but fast and sometimes quite rough. It’s not a rally where you can go blasting around carefree and try and set fastest stage time after fastest stage time, because you won’t get away with it. You have to use your head to make sure you keep yourself in the game by steering clear of punctures and maintaining car reliability.”

Paul Nagle, who navigates defending IRC champion Kris Meeke, says his driver will have to adopt a similar approach to Wilks.

“The fastest man won’t win here because you have to be so clever,” said Nagle. “You have to protect your tyres because of punctures. You can’t afford to make any mistakes like overshoots or sliding wide in places because you can pick up silly problems and your rally will be over.”