Itu and driver Tempestini were in touching distance of the top 10 on Italy’s ERC qualifier earlier this month when an unavoidable impact led to their retirement following leg two’s opening stage.
Rather than dwelling on what might have been, Itu revealed that Barum Czech Rally Zlín, round six of the 2025 ERC season from 15 – 17 August, was already the 32-year-old’s priority.
“We showed some good pace [on leg one] and [leg two] started really well up to that point that we were unlucky,” Itu said. “Every time you start a rally we all say anything can happen, but you rarely take this into account. But it’s like this and we’ll come back to Barum and hope to show the same pace we showed [in Rome].”
Tempestini and Itu have competed in Zlín together just once
© ERC
With two Barum Czech Rally Zlín starts to his name, Itu conceded there’s plenty still to learn.
“We’ve only done it once together and I’ve done Barum once more but it was in Junior ERC 10 years ago so we don’t have a lot of experience,” Itu said. “I also don’t think we have most of the notes so we’ll need to write everything from scratch. It’s going to be difficult but I’m hoping for surprise weather, I think that’s when the lack of experience will get equalised, let’s say, by difficult conditions.”