Following the shakedown held this morning in Putifigari, the Italian Rally Championship drivers are getting ready to face the super stage that will take place this evening in the Cagliari city harbour. CIR and TRT drivers will begin their race at 20.00 (local time) in front of the protagonists of the Rally World Championship. Two cars at a time will get on track on this brand new stage following the inverse pecking order in the case of the Italian championship's lineups.

The first impressions of the protagonists of the Italian Rally from service park in Alghero's Lungomare Garibaldi follow.

Terenzio Testoni, Product Manager Pirelli Motorsport: "Eying the long 'Monte Lerno' stage, we brought the XR5 – for the first time in the Italian rally – which is a new way of interpreting racing tires. These rubbers are narrower and designed for long stages on high grip and very abrasive surfaces suitable for different types of cars."

Giandomenico Basso, Gpl Ford Fiesta R5: "We run on an 80% set up car in Ciocco while here we are a bit behind. There's still a lot to do. Roads will be destroyed but they will be the same for everyone."

Paolo Andreucci, Peugeot 208 T16 R5: "Monte Lerno will make the difference and will decide the race. Physical strength is crucial in these stages."

Anna Andreussi, co-driver: "Everything is great here. A lot of people have been here since yesterday, stunning work by rally organizers."

Stefano Albertini, Peugeot 207 S2000: "I raced here in Sardinia two years ago but on different stages. I run the 'Monte Lern' back in 2008 on a Clio, but this time everything is new. We focused on preparing the car and drawing the notes. We went through the shakedown lap three times, which helped us to get back some confidence with driving on gravel."

Umberto Scandola, Skoda Fabia S2000: "I only did a shakedown lap, just to finalize the setup work done in the test of the past few days. The road is quite different from what lies ahead of us."

Andrea Nucita, Peugeot 207 S2000: "I did two shakedown laps this morning, but this is quite different from the stages we will have to go through tomorrow. We are a bit tense on the long stage of Saturday as we don't know weather conditions and this is going to be a physically tough stage."

Andrea Perego, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X: "I will set off and drive safely. We chose a very high setup of the car to avoid hitting bumps. During the race we will then fine tune the setup. This is going to be a tough race."

Simone Campedelli, Ford Fiesta R5: "We still have some regulations to do on the steering system. We are used to these conditions, but it is going to be a very tough race anyway”.

Two cars contesting the Italian Rally Championship in Sardinia: the Sicilian Andrea Nucita's Peugeot 207 S2000 and Simone Campedelli's Ford Fiesta R5.