Karl Kruuda Rally d’Italia Sardegna preview For immediate release: June 8, 2015 Following a rapid start to his season in Portugal, during which he was never out of the top three stage times until his retirement, Estonia’s Karl Kruuda is aiming for a winning result on the Rally d’Italia Sardegna this week. Driving his distinctly liveried Printsport Citroen DS3 R5, the 22-year-old faces a tough four-day challenge over some car-wrecking gravel roads, in hot temperatures that can exceed 30 degrees ambient. The Sardinian stages tend to be soft and sandy, exposing sharp rocks underneath the loose surface that frequently cause punctures. The good news for Kruuda is that these technical stages have some characteristics in common with the roads in northern Portugal: the venue for the last round of the WRC2 championship, during which Karl and his co-driver Martin Jarveoja impressed onlookers with their excellent pace. Portugal was a brand-new event for this year but Karl is coming to Sardinia for the third time, and he is hoping to put that hard-earned experience to good use. His previous best result on the Italian island was fourth place in WRC2 last year. “Sardinia will be hotter than Portugal, that’s for sure, and the stages will be even more demanding in many ways,” he said. “In the past we’ve shown that we’ve got the pace to win in Sardinia, so that has to be the aim again this year. Although we didn’t get a result in Portugal, I was actually quite encouraged by how it went. We know that we’re on the pace and that we can challenge for the win. I also had a very good feeling for the car on gravel. So I reckon we are in good shape for Sardinia.” This year’s WRC2 field – the feeder to the top World Rally Car class – has got arguably the strongest entry in the championship’s history, and the challenge in Sardinia will be increased by the presence of local experts such as multiple Italian rally champion Paolo Andreucci. “I saw Paolo’s times on the national event last year and they were very quick,” said Kruuda. “So he will definitely be a driver to watch, but there are many others too: it’s an incredibly strong entry, which is very exciting. As usual, it will be a balance between pushing hard enough to give yourself a chance, but steadily enough not to damage the car too much.” The long second day of the rally will be a particularly challenging equation of risk versus performance, with tyre management highlighted as an especially important area. “Actually, I think we are probably OK with that,” concluded Kruuda. “We have a remote tyre change zone and more tyres available than we had for Portugal, which should allow us to push a bit. I know the pace that I have to drive at, although of course sometimes theory and practice are two different things!” This year’s Rally Italia Sardegna is again based in Alghero, but the crews will not be returning to the service park there after the Thursday evening superspecial in Cagliari, staying instead in the Sardinian capital before contesting stages to the south in the Oristano region the following day. Two of the Friday stages – Montiferru and Sagama – are new for 2015, while the afternoon running includes the dramatic coastal Sinis-Mont’ e Prama test. Day two of Rally Italia Sardegna will provide the crews with their toughest challenge yet – the day’s stages cover a competitive distance of 212.83km to make up the longest leg of the WRC season. Among them are two runs of the 42.22km Monte Lermo test, which includes the famous Micky’s Jump. Sunday’s shorter leg includes the Mount Baranta test – new for 2015 – with the Power Stage run at Cala Flumini. To find out more about Karl Kruuda, please visit his new website at www.karlkruuda.com