There’s nothing worse than the all-seeing eye of Andrea Adamo when you’re trying to win a rally – the Italian plagued Dani Sordo’s run through the final morning of Rally Italy.
Sordo went into the final morning with a 27.4-second over Sébastien Ogier, but that had been whittled away to 9.2s ahead of the final test.
It was at that time that Hyundai Motorsport’s team principal telephoned the #6 i20 with some friendly advice. With that advice ringing in his ears, Sordo admitted he struggled to get the vision of his boss out of his head.
Sordo told DirtFish: “I was seeing the head of Adamo all the time in my car! I say “F*****g hell!” We were in the stage and I said to Carlos: “Adamo’s here – I can see him!” It was difficult. I didn’t want to make a mistake. It was so, so difficult.”
In the end, everything ended well for the Korean team.
So, what were Adamo’s words of wisdom?
“I told him to remember he was Dani Sordo!” said Adamo.
While the battle for second place intensified between Sordo’s team-mate Thierry Neuville and Ogier, it was Sordo’s time loss that really concerned Adamo – and helped keep the fans on their toes.
“He had a 34s lead and he won by six seconds,” said Adamo, “I didn’t tell him to create this level of emotion and tension! Honestly, I have to remind him that he is paid by Hyundai and not by the promoter!
“I think for this month the promoter will pay half of his salary – he created some incredible tension. Everybody is happy, me as well, but I would have loved it [to be a bit more straightforward].
“But if it was normal, maybe it wouldn’t be Dani and it wouldn’t be working with me!”
Sordo’s back in action this weekend, tackling Spain’s Rally de Cóbreces in a Hyundai i20 R5.
