Matton: variety good for the WRC

Varying the lengths of rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia is a good move according to Citroen Racing chief Yves Matton.

Last month’s Philips Rally Argentina covered a competitive distance of 503 kilometres - 150 kilometres more than some conventional rallies - and Matton said he welcomed the fresh approach.

“I think it’s a good idea to have some formats which are a little bit different to the other ones,” said Matton. “We will not say that we want all of the rallies at 500 kilometres. In Europe the rallies at 350 [kilometres] are very good, but every now and then something like this is very good and very interesting.”

Rally Argentina bosses are already working on plans for their event in 2013 with clerk of the course David Eli hoping to maintain the endurance format by reducing liaison section distances and increasing stage lengths. This year’s final day began with a 65-kilometre test.

Mikko Hirvonen, who finished second to Sebastien Loeb on last month’s rally in his factory Citroen DS3 WRC, would like a mixture of stages on next year’s route.

“It’s nice to have the different length of stages - we don’t want them all to be long ones,” he said. “But actually, you know, most of the stages are so nice here it doesn’t matter so much.”

Round six of the WRC, the Acropolis Rally in Greece, will run over a slightly more sedate competitive distance of 409.47 kilometres when it takes place from 24-27 May.