Wittmann excited by return to gravel

Franz Wittmann is relishing the chance to tackle Rally d’Italia-Sardegna this week because gravel is the young Austrian’s favourite surface.

Wittmann has never driven his Interwetten Racing-run Peugeot 207 Super 2000 on a pure gravel event before but can’t wait for the Intercontinental Rally Challenge counter to get underway in Cagliari on Friday evening, even though he will start Saturday’s stages in second place on the road, which will mean having to carve a clean line through the loose surface gravel.

However, he fears his lack of a pre-event test will put him at a disadvantage against his rivals.

“One still mustn’t forget that we didn’t find the opportunity for a day of testing, once more,” said Wittmann. “And in the fight for points we will face 16 very strong opponents who will also be competing in an S2000. But this challenge only spurs us on more and will very actively fight for our chance and try to put what we’ve learned so far into action to the best of our abilities.”