Rally Guanajuato Mexico goes further and longer

Next month’s Rally Guanajuato Mexico will be the longest FIA World Rally Championship round held in Guanajuato, with the organisers including in excess of 400 competitive kilometres for the first time.

Seven stages remain untouched from last season - including the superspecials and the street stages in Guanajuato and Leon - while seven have been altered for the March 8-11 event. The event is 143.46km longer this year and 43 of those are competitive. The total competitive distance is 407.87km, with day two making up the bulk of that at 183.80km.

The biggest change to the route comes on the Guanajuatito stage on the final morning (Sunday March 11), which has mushroomed from 29.13km last year to 54.30km next month. The stage starts just north of Leon and finishes out west towards Silao.

Remaining from last year will be the hugely popular DC Shoes Street Stage in Guanajauto, which comes straight after the ceremonial start. This 1.05km stage is the only time through the season when the crews will run underground competitively - and there will be tens of thousands of rally fans cheering them all the way.

New for this year will be the Las Minas and Los Mexicanos stages which are run twice on the opening day of competition. The action will begin, however, with the first ever gravel Qualifying stage, a 5.18km test which starts at 1033 local time on Thursday March 8.