After the first long haul event of the season three weeks ago, the FIA World Rally Championship will once again head west, this time to South America and the gravel routes of Rally Argentina.

The event never fails to excite in a country where the tango mirrors the passion and fervour for life. It is surrounded by colour and the atmosphere crackles as more than a million fanatical Latin Americans flock out into the vast pampas of Cordoba province for a weekend-long fiesta.

The scenery is stunning too, ranging from huge expanses of open plains north of the host town of Carlos Paz to the mountains further west where rocky ribbons of road wind through a dramatic moon-like landscape.


Special notes:

Argentina is another true classic and one that tests crews with very different conditions on each day of competition.

The event has been run in May as part of the WRC for the last two years, but this season sees the event brought forwards by six weeks in a return to March running which may present more unpredictable weather to add to the mix.

Each of the three days on this demanding event pitches crews against a different backdrop and road surface, making for an incredibly varied event in which those who are fast on one day may slip back the next.

The stages on day one are very fast and similar to those in Mexico, while competition on day two is run on a very hard base of sand. Day three climbs high into the mountains and is very twisty. Such is the variation that the teams will approach each day anew.

The rally is based in Villa Carlos Paz in the city of Cordoba, nestled into the banks of the San Roque Lake. The service park lies at a height of 650 metres above sea level, but stages rise steeply into the surrounding mountains to a peak of 2100 metres, making this another high-altitude encounter.

Road position is particularly important as crews who are able to run the stages before the loose surface deteriorates too badly will gain significant advantage. The second passes of the stages in the afternoon will likely be increasingly treacherous for those further down the order as the ruts cut deep into the road. On the tough tests and in the inconsistent conditions, drivers must perform consistently to stay at the front.

The stages consist of medium- to high-speed routes that flow through the mountains in and around Cordoba, with a superspecial stage held inside the Cordoba Stadium. Crews will use the same hard compound variant of Pirelli Scorpion gravel tyre as debuted in Mexico.