Irish drivers Sardinia preview

Points to prove in Sardinia for Irish Rally Drivers

Donegal's Shaun Gallagher will be aiming to keep his lead in the FIA Junior World Championship this weekend as competitors take to the gravel tracks of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia for three days of action.

The World Rally Team Ireland competitor is sitting eight points ahead of his closest rival in the Championship, Spain's Manuel Rueda.

Dubliner Gareth MacHale and Paul Nagle, Killarney, will also be competing in the 7th round of the Championship. The pair finished in eleventh place on the event last year and will be hoping their new Ford Focus WRC will give them the edge into the top ten this time round.

The rally is based in Olbia, in the Costa Smeralda region in the north of the island, but starts and finishes in Porto Cervo, one of Europe's most exclusive holiday resorts. The stages contain a mix of narrow, twisty roads and more flowing tracks.

This event is one of the most abrasive and demanding on tyres in the World Championship, but the total number which can be used by drivers over the course of the event is the lowest in the championship. The eighteen stages of the rally take place over three days on the island which is second-largest in the Mediterranean and the third-largest region of Italy.

-credit: rallyireland.org