Exciting plan for Curitiba start order

Organisers of Rally Internacional de Curitiba have revealed an exciting plan to spice up Thursday’s prologue stage.

The 3.38-kilometre course will determine the running order for the opening day of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge event.

However, rather than base Friday’s starting positions on the results of the stage, the top five fastest drivers will decide where they start the day’s seven stages, choosing from positions one to 10 depending on their preference.

The next five fastest drivers will be handed the remaining starting places not selected in order of position with the remaining 39 runners heading off in start number order.

Road position order can be a major factor to the outcome of gravel rallies, particularly on the first pass of stages when drivers have to negotiate a layer of loose-surface gravel.

The top-ten starting order for the Super Prime Pinhais prologue stage, which gets underway at 15:30hrs local time on Thursday, is as follows:

1 Kris Meeke (Peugeot 207 S2000)
2 Juho Hänninen (Škoda Fabia S2000)
3 Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia S2000)
4 Bruno Magalhães (Peugeot 207 S2000)
5 Guy Wilks (Škoda Fabia S2000)
6 Daniel Oliveira (Peugeot 207 S2000)
7 Oswaldo Scheer (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)
8 Eduardo Peredo (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)
9 Luis Eduardo Stedile (Peugeot 207 S1600)
10 Eduardo Scheer (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)