Sordo quashes talk of imminent rallycross switch

The Spaniard was present at last weekend’s World RX opener in Barcelona where he was spotted talking to Prodrive personnel, prompting speculation he was on the verge of moving to Guerlain Chicherit’s GCK team.

Sordo, who drove the Banbury team’s Mini John Coooper Works WRC for two years, has told Motorsport.com his priority is to remain in the WRC with Hyundai.

He said: “I went to the rallycross because it was in Spain and I have a lot of really good friends from Prodrive, including [chairman] David Richards.

“They were saying to me: 'Ah, you have to come and test this car…' Then some guy asked me, like a normal conversation, would I like to do rallycross? Maybe it’s something for the future.”

Sordo arrived in Barcelona, where he also met former WRC competitors Petter Solberg and Nasser Al-Attiyah, fresh from his pre-Rally Argentina test in Portugal and he said his time aboard the gravel-spec i20 Coupe WRC underlined his priority.

“It was nice to watch the rallycross,” he said, “but after I had driven the [Hyundai] car down the stage, the sensation was so nice from the rallying – it’s hard to imagine it [rallycross] being better.

“I love Hyundai, they are like my family. What I want is to stay in rallying; for how many years? I don’t know. I would like to do the full championship again, but minimum what I am doing this year.

"It’s much too early to talk about what might be happening next year, but the priority for me is definitely to stay where I am.”

Sordo will contest the next two rounds of the WRC in Argentina and Portugal before handing the third i20 over to teammate Hayden Paddon for Italy and Finland.