PG Andersson will return to the world championship when he drives a Ford Fiesta RS WRC on next month’s Rally d’Italia Sardegna.
The 30-year-old shone on his home event, Rally Sweden, back in February when he took four stage wins and finished seventh overall. He has been absent from the series since then due to a lack of funds.
However, money left over from donations made by members of the public and various Swedish companies to enable him to tackle the WRC season-opener, have helped to ensure his return to the M-Sport team for the Olbia-based event from 5-8 May.
But Andersson, who will be co-driven by countryman Emil Axelsson, has lowered his expectations due to the lack of a pre-event test.
“It seems like it is straight into shakedown so it won’t be easy,” the double Junior world champion told Wrc.com. “For sure I hope to be one of the best privateers and close to the main manufacturer drivers. But they have done a lot of gravel rallies now and we have not done anything, no testing at all. I will just hope to get in the car and get a good feeling straightaway. Anything is possible.”
While Andersson concedes his lack of competitive kilometres in his Fiesta on gravel will be a hindrance he hopes to benefit from his likely starting position of 10th on day one of the event.
“Road position is always an advantage for sure and I’m also happy that the new Michelin did not have so much punctures in Jordan when before they seemed like a big issue.”
Andersson took part on Rally d’Italia Sardegna in June 2010 when it ran outside of the WRC schedule. He impressed at the wheel of a Group N Mitsubishi Lancer before transmission failure forced his retirement from seventh overall.