2022 Rally Italia Sardegna entry list officially published

The official entry list for the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship round five at Rally Italia Sardegna has been published, featuring 60 crews from 24 nations that will take on the challenging gravel roads of Gallura in Sardinia, Italy on 2-5 June.

The participating drivers could have been more but the organizers were forced to limit registrations to 60 crews, excluding a dozen teams due to logistical and regulatory requirements of the FIA.

In the Rally1 class there are a total of 11 hybrid Rally1 cars entered for the three manufacturers. Toyota Gazoo Racing will field the usual three Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 cars for he current drivers’ championship points leader Kalle Rovanperä from Finland, the Briton Elfyn Evans and the Finn Esapekka Lappi, who is competing in his third rally of the season replacing the eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier.

Kalle Rovanperä, Credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

Hyundai Motorsport will also be fielding three Hyundai i20 N Rally1 cars for the full-time drivers of Ott Tänak from Estonia and Thierry Neuville from Belgium. The Spaniard Dani Sordo, who has won in Sardinia before will be replacing Oliver Solberg for the second rally in a row, however Solberg will be missing this rally completely as he is also not entered in the support class.

M-Sport Ford World Rally Team are fielding four Ford Puma Rally1 cars for the Irishman Craig Breen, the Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux and the Britoin Gus Greensmith with the Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet being entered as an additional car.

Takamoto Katsuta from Japan will be entring in a fourth Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 car in the second string team of Toyota Gazoo Racing NG, which is a development programme run by the Japanese manufacturer.

Marco Bulacia, Credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

The WRC2 support category sees a huge entry of 36 crews that will be joining with the rally2 machines. Headlining the list is the current points leader and reigning champion Andreas Mikkelsen from Norway in a Toksport WRT Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo and will be joined by the Bolivian young rising star Marco Bulacia in a second Fabia.

Russian Nikolay Gryazin will enter in the Toksport WRT 2 team also with a Fabia, with the current WRC3 points leader Sami Pajari from Finland, who is graduating to WRC2, will be joining in a fourth Toksport Fabia but is not entered under the Toksport WRT banner.

Hyundai Motorsport is fielding two Hyundai i20 N Rally2 cars for the Finn Teemu Suninen and the Paraguayan Fabrizio Zaldivar. For the M-Sport line-up it will only be the Finn Jari Huttunen who is entered in a Ford Fiesta Rally2.

Eric Camilli, Credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

The Frenchman Yohan Rossel who took his maiden WRC2 win in Croatia is entered as the sole PH Sport Citroën C3 Rally2 driver. Other C3 drivers seen on the last are the fellow Frenchman Eric Camilli and the 2019 JWRC champion Jan Solans from Spain.

Out of the 36 entries there are 22 drivers using Fabias including strong names like the Britoin Chris Ingram, the Bolivian Bruno Bulacia (brother to Marco Bulacia), the Pole Mikolaj Marczyk and local Italian heroes of Simone Romagna, Mauro Miele and Francesco Tali.

The Finn Eerik Pietarinen, the Estonian Georg Linnamäe and the Saudi Arabian Rakan Al-Rashed are entered with Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.

The Czechs of Erik Cais and Martin Prokop are entered with Ford Fiesta Rally2 cars, Luke Anear from Australia, who is a billionaire and the founder of SafetyCulture, will also be making his WRC2 debut with a Fiesta and entered as a sole Peugoet 208 T16 is the local talent Francesco Marrone.

Credit: Jan Cerny

The Junior WRC will not take part in Italy but a small entry of five will take on the similar WRC3 class where the FIA European Rallycross Championship regular Jan Cerny from Czech Republic headlining the list together with Croatia winner Zoltan Laszlo from Hungary. The three others are Diego Dominguez Jr. from Paraguay and the Italians of Enrico Brazzoli and Gabriele Campagnoli.

The rally will start with the usual Thursday morning shakedown of Olmedo before the opening stage of Olbia – Cabu Abbas takes place in the evening and the rally will end on Sunday afternoon with the Wolf Power Stage at Sassari – Argentiera 2.

For the full entry list, you can find it here.