Sealed-surface rallies demand an agile, positive and well-balanced car that you can trust and use to the last centimetre of the road - and more. With the first all-tarmac round of the FIA World Rally Championship looming, Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart drivers Tommi Makinen and Freddy Loix have been testing new components and fine-tuning the Lancer Evolution/Carisma GT to cope with the mixture of smooth and bumpy surfaces experienced in the Catalunya Rally (30 March-2 April).

Based in Vic, north of Barcelona, from 2nd to 9th March, Makinen and Loix completed 1000 kilometres on a mixture of surfaces in conditions representative of those likely to be experienced when the competition begins at the end of this month. Working with an improved engine specification developed by Mitsubishi in Japan specifically for tarmac events, the team concentrated on suspension and geometry, as well as testing a new medium compound Michelin tyre.

"We have definitely moved forward with the settings for the Lancer on tarmac", commented four-times World Champion Tommi Makinen. "We have been working a lot with Pekka Siltanen, our damper specialist, and have looked at previously untried things which have made a big difference, in particular to the handling on bumpy roads, but we also now have less slide and more positive steering. The car also seems a lot faster than I remember from our last asphalt event in Sanremo last year, so I am happy that we will again be in the fight for victory", he added. The Finn then flew directly from Spain to Lapland to spend a few days downhill skiing before starting the practice for the forthcoming Portugal Rally.

Team-mate Freddy Loix may have only contested the Catalunya Rally three times at full World Championship level, but the Belgian has always finished fourth or higher and has high expectations of doing "the same if not better" this year.

"It was a good test. We have improved the car, but I think it was not so bad to start with so it is difficult to make better!" Loix said. "For me, the improvements were very important though, especially with the tyres. I have spent a lot of time testing different Michelin tyres and in the end it can be hard to tell what is better, but straight away I knew this new one was good, much better than last year. The front suspension was new for Monte Carlo, so we have just re-tuned this for Spain, but we have been changing a little bit the rear suspension. For sure it is difficult to know where we are compared to the other teams, but we have definitely made progress and I am happy to be well prepared".

The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart crews are now focused on the fourth round of the series - the Portugal Rally (16-19 March). Tommi Makinen last won the event in 1997 in the Lancer Evolution, while team-mate Freddy Loix has finished on the podium no less than three times (1996, 1997, and 1998).