The Intercontinental Rally Challenge will embrace a new concept with this weekend's Rally Internacional de Curitiba, which gets underway in Brazil on Friday, as the event will be held at the same venue as the opening round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

The rally runs around the city of Curitiba, to the south of Rio de Janeiro, with the service park based in the Curitiba International circuit, alongside the FIA World Touring Car Championship paddock. The special stages get underway on Friday morning and finish on Saturday lunchtime, just before qualifying for the World Touring Car races. With this innovative timetable, rallying and racing has come together in a way that has not yet been seen before. A number of activities are scheduled to take place before the rally that will see the racing drivers get close to their rallying counterparts and vice versa.

For the majority of the regular drivers, however, the Rally Internacional de Curitiba will also be a brand new event, marking the IRC's first gravel round of the season and the first time that the series has visited South America. The roads contain a wide mixture of fast and flowing gravel stages, which will allow every crew to exploit the capabilities of their cars to the maximum. However, there are a number of traps to catch out the unwary, giving the local drivers a distinct advantage in terms of experience.

The weather in Brazil is another factor that is sure to play a part. At this time of year, weather conditions around Curitiba are expected to be uncertain, and rain has been forecast along with warm temperatures. This makes tyre choice a vital element of success, and with no previously established data to go on, crews will have to rely on both accurate information and a little bit of luck.

The Rally Internacional de Curitiba will see just five of the IRC's regular stars battle it out against a strong contingent of local drivers, who both know the terrain well and are strongly poised to spring a surprise.

A total of 35 cars are scheduled to take the start, with the Peugeot UK 207 S2000 of Kris Meeke the first away. After setting a fastest stage time on the opening round of this year's IRC series in Monte Carlo, Meeke proved himself to be capable of fighting for the podium until his impressive progress was halted by a big accident. As a result, the Irishman will have a different Peugeot prepared for him by Kronos Racing, and one with a winning pedigree as it is the same car that Sebastien Ogier used to win the Monte Carlo Rally in January and Juho Hanninen used to triumph in Russia last year.

“What happened in Monte Carlo, when I went off the road, was just down to my inexperience of these conditions," Meeke insisted, "Brazil is going to be a level playing field and I'm sure we can get back on track there.

"I'm very excited by both this rally and the whole IRC in general. It really hands drivers such as me a fantastic opportunity, and I'm absolutely delighted to be here. Nobody has any particular advantage in terms of experience here, so I think that will help me.”

Two more Peugeots will be entered by Peugeot Belgium for reigning IRC champion Nicolas Vouilloz and last year's runner-up, Freddy Loix. With Vouilloz failing to score in Monte Carlo following an off-road excursion, the Frenchman will be out to redress the balance in Brazil. Loix, who finished second in Monte Carlo, has stated, by contrast, that he will not be going all-out to take a win at any cost, as he can afford a certain safety margin.