One of the official Ducati riders of the MotoGP World Championship, will replace the two wheels with the four in the Rally legend which will take place this weekend. The winner of seven races in the premier category of motorcycling will drive a Group B Audi Quattro S1 in the 22nd edition of this event which celebrates the past and present of rallying in San Marino for four days.
The Rimini driver, who finished fourth in last weekend’s long-running Japanese Grand Prix and is third overall, will share the Quattro with Lamborghini R&D test driver Emanuele Zonzini. Both should enjoy driving the car onto the rally spectator stage.
The Audi Quattro S1 was designed to compete in the legendary Group B of the World Rally Championship, with an approximate output of 450 horsepower coming from its 2.1-liter turbocharged engine. Made his debut at the end of the 1984 seasonand allows the German brand to reach second place in the manufacturers’ ranking, behind Peugeot, in 1985.
Bastianini is not the only MotoGP star interested in this motorsport discipline. In 2020, the current Pramac driver, Franco Morbidellitook part in the final WRC event, the Monza Rally, driving a Hyundai i20 N in the Rally2 class, finishing 39th in the category. His mentor, the legendary has enjoyed success in rallying, winning the Monza Rally Show seven times and competing in the World Championship three times.
Rallylegend will welcome many WRC stars, including one of M-Sport’s current drivers, Adrien Fourmauxwho will drive the Ford Puma Rally1. The Frenchman will face winner of a Formula 1 race and converted into a rally driverwho will take the wheel of a Citroën C3 WRC with 2017 specifications in the company of Janne Fermwho announced his retirement as co-pilot with Esapekka Lappi earlier this month.
The world champion Stig Blomqvist will also get back behind the wheel of an Audi Quattro, as the event will mark the 40th anniversary of Swede’s 1984 success, double champion Miki Biasion. He will also be present at the controls of a Lancia 037, while the 50th anniversary of the Lancia Stratos since its first world title (1974) will also be commemorated.
Alongside Blomqvist and Biasion, among the rally stars will be the six-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and winner of the Dakar Rally in 1983, Jacky Ickxand the 1981 WRC champion and four-time Dakar winner, Ari Vatanen. Both will drive a Porsche 959 and a Peugeot 405 T16 with which they will participate in the toughest rally in the world.
The former WRC factory driver, Armin Schwarz will drive a Group A Audi Quattro Coupé, while his son, Fabio Schwarz, will demonstrate in a Hyundai Accent WRC.an example of the car his father drove in the World Championship between 2002 and 2003.
Valentino Rossi, Carlo Cassina, Ford Fiesta