Milton Keynes, England — BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team journeys to northern Spain this week for the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile World Rally Championship’s first traditional mixed gravel and asphalt round since 1996.

Rally de España is the penultimate event in the 13-round series and the new format is a throwback to the early 1990s when such rallies were not uncommon in the championship.

In recent years the rally has been a pure asphalt encounter. However, to celebrate its 20th year in the WRC, organisers have reverted to the event’s original format of mixed surface competition. Drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen and team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila will drive their Ford Focus RS World Rally Cars in full gravel specification during Friday’s opening leg. Their cars will then be converted into asphalt trim for the final two days of action.

To add an extra challenge, the opening leg will not be completely gravel. Of the three different stages, one is all-dirt and the other two are mixed, with a higher ratio of loose surface roads. The most demanding will be the opening 35.94km Terra Alta test which includes frequent changes in surface over three gravel and two asphalt sections.

The last WRC round to use the mixed format in this way was Italy’s Sanremo Rally in 1996. Last year’s Cyprus Rally blended one day of asphalt speed tests with two days of loose roads, but cars used full gravel specification and tyres on both surfaces.

The rally is based in the holiday resort of Salou, on the Costa Daurada coast, south-west of Barcelona. The dirt stages in the Tarragona region will be new to all drivers, although roads in this area are frequently used for testing, and their nature will remain unknown to competitors until they begin their recce on Tuesday.

The asphalt stages are fast and can be compared to a race circuit in their characteristics. Although the roads are smooth, they are often abrasive and can become slippery as drivers cut the open corners to shave tenths of a second from their times, dragging stones and dirt onto the surface. However, through the years organisers have worked on the roads to reduce the number of opportunities to cut and provide more equal driving conditions for all.

Source: http://www.fordracing.com/news/detail/index.asp?article=38544

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