Christian Merli racing at the Rally delle Marche in Italy
Christian Merli started the season in his favourite discipline, the rally: In January he took part in the opening round of the World Rally Championship at Monte Carlo. Now, having dominated all ten rounds of the European hill climb championship and won his fifth continental title in his Osella FA 30 Judd LRM, he is returning behind the wheel of the Skoda Fabia R5. In Cingoli near Macerata in the central Italian Marche region, he will be racing at the 16th Rally delle Marche, the fifth round of the Italian offroad rally championship.
Debut at Cingoli
“I’ve never raced here. So our only reference is the information included in the regulations. My co-driver Massimo Furlini and I are aiming to enjoy ourselves in the Skoda Fabia R5 of team GF Racing. But you know what it’s like: when the light at the start changes, you give your all. The special stages are short, and you take any little error with you to the finish line. We’ll be doing a test beforehand and hope to familiarise ourselves with the 4x4. Our start number is the 15, but before us there will be all the big offroad names.”
The Rally delle Marche
The track is a total of 268.940 km long, of which 62.580 km make up the twelve special stages; there are four different ones with three rounds on each of them, all on Sunday.