Abarth at Brazil's Rally de Curitiba

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The works Abarth Grande Punto S2000s of Giandomenico Basso, co-driven by Mitia Dotta, and young Finn Anton Alén, co-driven by Timo Alanne, take part in Brazil's Rally Internacional de Curitiba which gets underway tomorrow (Thursday 5 March) at 17:00 local time - 21:00 CET. This is the second round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the international championship that began last January with the Rallye Monte-Carlo.

The Rally Internacional de Curitiba takes place on gravel roads and is characterized by fast special stages and a lot of crests. This fixture should suit to perfection the Nordic drivers' style. The main rivals of the Abarth drivers for this event will be Frenchman Nicolas Vouilloz, Belgian Freddy Loix, Britt Kris Meeke (all driving Peugeot 207 S2000s) and Argentinean Marcos Ligato (with a Mitsubishi Lancer).

For the Abarth Team drivers, this will be the first participation in the South American rally as it was not part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge before.

The programme features two legs. After the ceremonial start, the crews restart on Friday 6 March at 8:30am (12:30pm CET) from the paddock of the Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba (Curitiba circuit) and head towards the first of the seven special stages scheduled on day one. The leg covers a distance of 388 km, of which 101 against the stopwatch, and finishes at 17:40 (21:40 CET). Saturday 7 March, the second and last section takes in six more special stages totalling 120 km. It begins at 7:20am (11:20am CET) to finish at the Autódromo de Curitiba at 14:05 (18:05 CET).