After the trip long trip to Argentina, the World Rally Championship returns to European soil this weekend for the Rally d'Italia Sardinia.

The event on the Mediterranean island is regarding as one of the drivers favourites and features stages which are both quick but also technically challenging for the competing crews.

Sardinia kick-starts a run of four European events on the calendar before the WRC hits the road once again to head to Australia in September.

Special notes:

Sardinia lies in the Mediterranean sea between Spain and Italy, just 12 kilometres from the coast of Corsica, itself the scene for a World Rally encounter later in the season. As per previous years, the rally is based in the northern tip of the island, in the industrial port of Olbia on the Costa Smeralda coast.

The soft and almost sandy gravel roads wind through a combination of unspoiled green mountainsides that contrast with the sometime dusty and rocky routes of the lower regions.

The traction and braking stability of the cars will be really tested by the loose surfaces that can cause the cars to wander as the road beneath them shifts. Eighty per cent of the local area is hilly, and while more rolling than mountainous, the stages steadily undulate.

The stages are very flowing and technical, meaning it is vital that crews get into a good rhythm from the outset in order to attack fully. Crews running first on the road will clean the loose surface to the benefit of those behind them, but as the roads deteriorate and become rutted by the second passes, it will actually favour the front-runners.

FIA World Rally Championship news:

Both Indonesia and Russia have lost slots on the WRC calendar for the 2010 season after failing FIA inspections. Monte Carlo is also unlikely to return to the WRC next season but the prospect of only events 'already established' coming back onto the schedule could lead to a reprieve for Wales Rally GB.

Ford has revealed more information on how Jari-Matti Latavala and co-driver Miikka Antilla escaped injury in their accident on Rally Portugal – with a post-event report showing how the Focus WRC had survived its roll down a mountainside.