The first day heads north from the Carlos Paz base into the Punilla Valley while the second leg, the longest of the event, heads south to the Calamuchita valley for a double pass over faster roads. Both days end with a new stage at Cordoba's soccer stadium, but without using the main arena. The final leg covers just 42km south-west of Carlos Paz in the Traslasierra mountains, comprising the rocky El Condor and Giulio Césare tests, two of the most famous and toughest in the championship, which peak at 2195m. It ends with a super special stage over a different route at the stadium.
Drivers face 21 stages in total covering 347.91 kilometres in a route of 1619.45 kilometres.
Last year:
Sebastien Loeb won the 'abridged' Rally Argentina last year, leading practically from start-to-finish.
Proceedings only got underway 'proper' on the Saturday however, after all the transport problems on the Friday, which practically wiped out the first leg and left a number of drivers' and personnel stranded in Buenos Aires following the Thursday night super special.
Loeb took the lead from
Mikko Hirvonen on the first 'real' test. He then proceeded to build up a good cushion and eventually finished the event 36.7 seconds in front.
Gronholm meanwhile was second, while Mikko Hirvonen took the final place on the podium in the second
BP Ford Focus, with
Jari-Matti Latvala and
Henning Solberg fourth and fifth.
Daniel Sordo,
Chris Atkinson and Manfred Stohl rounded out the points' scorers in sixth, seventh and eighth, with PWRC winner
Federico Villagra ninth overall in a Mitsubishi Lancer.
In terms of retirees there was only one big casualty - namely
Petter Solberg. 'Hollywood' went out on the penultimate stage when his car stopped with engine problems while running third overall.
Matthew Wilson and Luis-Perez Companc also had issues but both got to the finish under the SupeRally format.
