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2005 WRC: ITALIA SARDINIA

• DRIVERS: Sébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena & Francois Duval / Stephane Prevot
• LOEB: "... we don't yet know what the profile of the rally is going to be. Following the general disappointment expressed by the drivers last year, the majority of the stages are new. We all hope the new roads will be good, and there apparently are some good roads in the region. But whatever they're like, we will give it our best effort. The Xsara has shown that it continues to progress and the new Michelin tyre is a valuable asset for us. I hope all that will enable us to be up there with the best of them."
• DUVAL: "I wasn't a big fan of what we saw in 2004. Slippery stages aren't a problem so long as you have room to slide and that wasn't the case with last year's narrow stages which had stones either side of the road. I was glad to hear that much of the route has been changed and I am curious to see what the organisers have found. After that, it's up to us to do our best. As in the opening rallies of the season, I hope our times will enable me to join in the fight for the podium and that all our work will pay off as it did in New Zealand."

• Drivers: Marcus Gronholm and Timo Rautiainen, Markko Martin and Michael Park
• GRONHOLM: "I was delighted to come away from New Zealand with more valuable points, although I was a little disappointed of course not to have won there again. We will be able to count on our car's excellent reliability. We simply lacked a little 'plus' in New Zealand to be able to fight for victory. I am looking forward to seeing how competitive we will be in Italy where the stages will be very different to what we found in New Zealand."
• MARTIN: "The rally takes place at a different time of year now and some of the stages are new. We will see how it goes when we get there. One thing is certain: Pirelli tyres were competitive last year and that's encouraging. Personally, I will be out to score as many points as possible of course while continuing to adapt the car's set-up to my driving style. I changed the way I drove on the final day in New Zealand and that was a little better. Our aim is to continue making progress and to defend as best we can the positions we and the team currently hold in the two championships."

FORD

• Drivers: Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen; Roman Kresta and Jan Tomanek
• GARDEMEISTER: "My experience there is small ... I learned something about the roads last year when I came back to do SupeRally on the second day, but I had problems so the benefits weren't great. If you drive special stages in the same area then it gives a feeling for their characteristics, but it's never the same as driving the exact roads. There are so many new stages this year that nobody is going to have a big advantage. Last year's roads were narrow with a lot of stones on the edge. I think this year's rally will be faster but we won't really know until we practise the stages on Tuesday and Wednesday,"
• KRESTA: "As it's a new rally to me, my aim will be to learn about the stages. I will take no risks and concentrate on improving my knowledge. The more experience I can get of the stages, the more it will benefit me for the future, but I'm still keen to collect points for BP-Ford"

SKODA

• Drivers: Armin Schwarz and Janne Tuohino
• SWARTZ: "We discovered last year that this new event wasn't like the old Sardinia Rally. The roads are narrow and twisty with a lot of loose gravel on the surface. But running the rally earlier in the year might make a big difference. We didn't have good weather in the pre- rally test so maybe this will be the first wet event of the season. Either way it is important to try and be fast from the start."
• TUOHINO: "Since New Zealand we had a good test in Sardinia, quite close to Olbia, and I did about 300kms which was important for me to learn about this soft and sandy surface. I have never done this event before but the roads are quite narrow and technical which is good for my driving style. I used to be quite sideways which was good for the fans but not for the times! It certainly wouldn't work here."

SUBARU - 3 CARS

• Drivers: Petter Solberg ; Chris Atkinson ; Stephane Sarrazin
• SOLBERG: "Sardinia should be a very good event and I think we have a strong chance of winning it if everything works out well. It's a different rally to New Zealand as it's more narrow and twisty and that, along with the temperatures, is better for the tyres. I'll be running first on the road again, but that's the price you pay for leading the championship so I'm not complaining!"
• ATKINSON: "It was good to get a couple of stage wins in New Zealand this early on in my WRC career. Although we didn't maintain the speed all weekend, I think we learned a lot and made some changes that will help us in the future. The stages in Sardinia are a lot slower and narrower than those in New Zealand and that means it'll be even more important not to make mistakes. Narrower stages mean it can be easier to go off the driving line, hit a rock and take a wheel off. But it's a rally where Petter and the team worked well last year, so that's promising. We're aiming to run at a consistent pace all weekend and, if we can reach the same speed that we did on the first day in New Zealand, to keep that up all weekend. That way the end result could be good. Between rallies we're evaluating lessons that we've learned on each event and using that information to move forward before the start of the next, it's going well."
• SARAZIN: "I've spent some time testing the car on gravel and the feeling is very good. It was my first time on a loose surface and I'm happy with what we've achieved in a short time. It's good grip on gravel - better than I thought, and things seem positive. The driving style is only slightly different to tarmac, so I'm not modifying things too much. I'm just thinking about starting the recce next week and am planning to give my maximum. It's the first gravel rally for me so I'm going to be concentrating on learning, progressing and getting experience. I have a very good car, but it's all still very new to me."

MITSUBISHI

• DRIVERS: Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietiläinen & Gigi Galli/Guido D'Amore
• GALLI: "my dream is to get to the finish inside the top five; I want to do this for everyone, but particularly my people: the Italians, my fans and the passion they have for our sport. The first two days of the rally will be particularly tough, and long, and I think we have to be very careful. Many crews had problems last year and I think it’s important to concentrate, take care and understand what is happening around us, as well as to the car. I know the event has changed a lot since last year and hopefully the stages will be faster, but the weather will be a very difficult thing. At this time it’s easy to find bad weather in Sardinia and that will add something else to the event. But, I am ready to fight, improve the car and make a good result, with Guido, for the team and especially for Italy"
• ROVANPERA: "The roads there are not so bad and there are many spectators, which gives the rally a good atmosphere. We’ve had a long test in Spain since New Zealand, which was okay, but we had heavy rain which loses you time, some ideas and how to compare things. I couldn’t believe it; of the three gravel tests I have done it has rained each time! But, we found some ideas and solutions on the damper side and there is more coming up for the summer"

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