Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso took some welcome time away from his 2015 MotoGP campaign last Friday, as he slotted in a demonstration ‘taxi-ride’ with two-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier on board the Volkswagen Polo R WRC in the build-up to Rally Italia Sardegna, round 6 of this year’s world championship, which takes place from 11-14 June.

The 29-year-old Italian MotoGP star, currently lying third in the championship on 83 points, was delighted to take up the offer to have a ride with the expert Frenchman in the cockpit of his Volkswagen Motorsport 1.6 litre turbocharged machine, and even in this pre-event testing run on the former Crucitta special stage, he was able to get a first-hand glimpse of the performance of the latest generation of WRC machines.

Dovizioso, whose only previous rallying experience was limited to two participations in the Rally di Monza parkland event and in the Bettega Memorial at the Bologna Motorshow in 2011, where he arrived in the final only to lose out to Petter Solberg, had received the invitation from Ogier at Mugello, where the 31-year-old French champion had been guest in the Ducati Team garage during the Italian GP.

Andrea, who was thrilled to be accompanied around the spectacular gravel roads of the Costa Smeralda on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, declared:

“It was a superb experience, firstly because I am a fan of rallying, and second because I was lucky enough to do it with Sébastien Ogier and to speak with his co-driver Ingrassia. It is impossible to describe just how extreme the whole experience is, how powerful these cars are and how fast they go on the gravel roads. To be honest, it is the most exciting and incredible thing I have ever done! It all happens at a speed that you are simply unable to comprehend and it’s a really intense feeling. A big thanks to Seb and to VW Motorsport for this truly memorable experience”.