Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

WRC Italy: Robert Kubica tops shakedown in Sardinia

Robert Kubica posted the fastest time on the Rally Italy shakedown stage

Kubica's M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC was a tenth of a second faster than world championship leader Sebastien Ogier's Volkswagen Polo across the 2.60-mile Putifigari stage.

Kubica benefited from cleaner conditions at shakedown after he elected to run further down the order in an attempt to mirror the conditions he will be greeted with when the mainstay of the action starts on Friday.

"I had quite a good feeling straight away and the grip was better than I expected," said Kubica.

"It helped that we waited to let the others go because I'll be at the back of the start order tomorrow so there was no point in running at the front on a fresh road.

"The stage had a bit of everything, but was maybe lacking high speed corners which we will get during the next days.

"There were narrow parts and bumps but generally it was a lower speed stage rather than a high speed one."

The top three drivers were split by just three tenths of a second, with VW men Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala a tenth and two tenths down on the Pole respectively.

Volkswagen's shakedown was not entirely straightforward, however. Norwegian driver Andreas Mikkelsen stopped for one minute with an electrical fault on his first run. His second shot at the stage was good enough for fifth fastest.

Henning Solberg slotted in between the VWs in fourth.

Britain's Kris Meeke placed his Citroen sixth with top Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville seventh.

This week's AUTOSPORT magazine - available in shops and online - features an in-depth interview with Robert Kubica about his career, Formula 1 and rallying

Leading shakedown times:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car      Time     Gap
 1.  Robert Kubica       M-Sport Ford  3m35.4s
 2.  Sebastien Ogier     VW            3m35.5s  +0.1s
 3.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW            3m35.7s  +0.3s
 4.  Henning Solberg     M-Sport Ford  3m35.9s  +0.5s
 5.  Andreas Mikkelsen   VW            3m36.4s  +1.0s
 6.  Kris Meeke          Citroen       3m38.8s  +3.4s
 7.  Thierry Neuville    Hyundai       3m38.9s  +3.5s
 8.  Juho Hanninen       Hyundai       3m39.6s  +4.2s
 9.  Mikko Hirvonen      M-Sport Ford  3m39.8s  +4.4s
10.  Mads Ostberg        Citroen       3m40.5s  +5.1s

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Kris Meeke: internet coverage should be WRC's focus not TV
Next article WRC Italy: Mikko Hirvonen takes early lead after superspecial

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe