Sordo goes climbing to boost WRC bid

Dani Sordo has been busy climbing hills ahead of this week’s Rallye de France Alsace.

Sordo, who will pilot a MINI John Cooper Works WRC on the Strasbourg-based asphalt qualifier this week, was competing in the Subida a Liebana hillclimb in his native Spain recently. The former Junior world champion is a regular on the event and this year drove a BMW M3 to second place.

Of his return to FIA World Rally Championship action from 4-7 October, the Prodrive WRC Team driver has already tasted success on French soil this season having triumphed on the Tour de Corse back in May. The event formed France’s round of the WRC until 2008 but it now counts as a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

“This Rallye de France is nothing at all like the old Tour de Corse, which we won earlier this year,” said Sordo. “The stages are a lot quicker, and many of them are quite similar to the Rallye Deutschland stages. I hope to get to grips with the Mini WRC again quickly and fight at the front. The information that we get from our gravel crews will be very important on this event.”

Sordo finished a sensational second overall on Rallye de France last season