Zoom Destination: Mediterranean

Following three consecutive fixtures outside Europe, the Ford World Rally Team steps up the pace in the FIA World Rally Championship next week as the series returns there for the first time since February.

After mastering near 40ºC temperatures with victory in Jordan last month, the heat is turned up metaphorically for the championship leader as Rally d'Italia Sardegna (15-18 May) marks the first of a burst of three Mediterranean rallies in five weekends to take the series to the summer halt.

Although this is round six of the 15-event championship, the speed tests on Italy's sun-kissed holiday island mark the first occasion in which Ford's WRC gladiators will taste European gravel this season – it is quickly followed by Greece and Turkey.

A key characteristic of Sardinia's speed tests is their narrowness, and drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen and team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila know mistakes can be punished as rocks line the edge of the tracks, waiting to batter a car's suspension or attack its tyres. A sandy surface masks a hard base below and roads can be rutted and rocky during the second pass, demanding strength from the team's Focus RS World Rally Cars and durability from Pirelli's Scorpion tyres.

Hirvonen's first win of the season, in Jordan, helped Ford extend its manufacturers' series lead to seven points and took him back to the top of the drivers' table with a five-point advantage. Hirvonen finished second here in 2006 and 2007 so knows what it takes to be successful on this challenging event.

"The stages are narrow but fast and although there are rough sections, it's by no means the roughest rally of the season. It's the first hot gravel rally in Europe but we have good knowledge of how Pirelli's tyres work in those conditions from Mexico and Jordan. The roads are probably rougher than either of those events but they're not too harsh on tyres and I have no concerns about that," said Hirvonen.

"Because I lead the championship, I'm first in the start order on Friday. That's never the best place on a dry gravel rally because the first car cleans the loose stones and those behind have a better driving line," he explained. "But it's not usually a big disadvantage in Sardinia and I'm not going to worry about that."

"My focus is finding the right speed on Friday morning because I can't afford to let any driver break clear. At the end of the first day in Jordan four cars were covered by less than 15 seconds. It could be just as close in Sardinia and I need to be in that group," added the 27-year-old Finn.