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ALL SET FOR ASPHALT AS M-SPORT’S YOUNG QUARTET BUILDS UP TO BELGIUM

M-Sport Ford World Rally Team and its quartet of young talents will embark on an all-new asphalt adventure next week (13-15 August) when Belgium and the Ypres Rally host the FIA World Rally Championship for the first time.

After four rounds on gravel, the multiple event- and title-winning British outfit is gearing up for a Tarmac event with a difference.

The rally is essentially two events rolled into one. The route on Friday and Saturday follows a tried and tested – and demanding – format, while Sunday’s itinerary takes crews 300 kilometres east to the Spa-Francorchamps race circuit for four stages in and around the Belgian Grand Prix venue.

Before then, however, are 16 stages covering a competitive distance of 255.26 kilometres located within a 30-kilometre radius of the historic market town of Ypres in northwest Belgium. Running over narrow and technical farmland roads, tight junctions and drainage ditches are commonplace, while changeable grip levels – and weather – add to the challenge facing the drivers and their teams. And with drivers taking ‘cuts’ through corners, mud and gravel can get dragged onto the road to create a slippery surface.

Although it’s a new event for the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team and its drivers, it’s not completely unchartered territory.

M-Sport used the rally to showcase its Ford Fiesta R5 to the world when it ran as a course car on the 2013 edition of the Ypres Rally, then a round of the FIA European Rally Championship. Adrien Fourmaux’s Belgian co-driver Renaud Jamoul and Gus Greensmith’s co-driver Chris Patterson have taken part on the event in the past, while Fourmaux’s family home is 40 kilometres from Ypres.

The Croatia Rally in late April was the last world championship round to take place on asphalt and marked Fourmaux’s debut in an EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta WRC with the Frenchman taking a fine fifth overall. He returns to the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team World Rally Car line-up to partner Greensmith as Teemu Suninen reverts to the squad’s WRC2 attack alongside Tom Kristensson with both relying on the EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta Rally2.

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