Sport | Motorsport

FIA World Rally Championship to be filled with highs and lows

BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team can expect to experience a mix of highs and lows during the course of the 15-round FIA World Rally Championship season - both literally and metaphorically.

  • Staff Report
  • Published: 00:33 April 19, 2008
  • Gulf News

Dubai: BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team can expect to experience a mix of highs and lows during the course of the 15-round FIA World Rally Championship season - both literally and metaphorically.

After tackling the two highest rounds in the championship in Mexico and Argentina last month, the leaders of the manufacturers' championship will aspire to a high in the lowlands of Jordan next week when the fifth round of the series takes the team to the lowest point on earth at the Dead Sea.

Location

Rally Jordan (April 24 - 27) is the first WRC round in an Arab country since 1976 and represents a step into the unknown for Ford's Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen and team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila.

Neither pairing has visited Jordan before, so the characteristics of the Middle East roads and the vagaries of the conditions will offer a steep learning curve for the Finnish quartet as they strive to extend Ford's three-point series lead in their Focus RS World Rally Cars.

The rally is based on the shores of the Dead Sea, 420 metres below sea level, and the location will provide a boost to the Focus RS's engine performance. In contrast to Mexico and Argentina where low air pressure at altitude meant less oxygen was available to burn fuel in the engine, resulting in less power, the opposite will be true in Jordan.

The speed tests will be held in the west and north of the country and government support has enabled organisers to build several new gravel roads specifically for the rally.

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