With the FIA World Rally Championship reaching its climax, testing and preparation for the penultimate round, Rally Australia, is critical and Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart is leaving nothing to chance. Finn Tommi Makinen heads the leaderboard alongside Britain’s Colin McRae but, with no fewer than four drivers in with a real chance of the title, and Mitsubishi still in the fight for the Manufacturers’ crown, the outcome ’down under’ could ensure one of the most nail-biting finishes to the Championship in recent years.

Mitsubishi engineers and technicians flew direct from the Mediterranean island of Corsica to Australia to prepare the Lancer Evolution WRCs for this gravel event, which is characterised by its narrow tree-lined roads covered with unique round gravel. Weather conditions, as the Southern Hemisphere heads into its summer, have been fine with temperatures between 18 and 25 degrees, despite some light rain. Test driver Lasse Lampi undertook the initial set-up for the car’s gravel specification, the highly-experienced Finn covering hundreds of kilometres before Makinen and Freddy Loix got their hands on the team’s latest challenger.

The test in Bunbury, to the south of Perth, concentrated on transmission and gear ratios, suspension set-up and differential mapping, and Lampi, Makinen and Loix will have covered over one thousand kilometres in the last five days, the outcome producing a very happy and relaxed Tommi Makinen.

"I am very happy with the car set-up, it is very different to drive than the old car was, but more importantly a lot different to how I thought it would be after driving the Tarmac car", commented Tommi. "Having done about 300 kilometres in the last two days, it is easy to see that a few of the problems we had with the old car have been cured by the new suspension set-up and travel, and everything is working very well, I’m a lot happier with the way it drives".

Makinen will, for the first time in four years, also be competing with a new co-driver, Timo Hantunen replacing the recovering Risto Mannisenmaki. While Tommi’s professional career has essentially been with just two co-drivers, he and Timo are no strangers, the Finns having competed together in 1989, and Makinen has no reservations about their partnership.

"Everything is working well with Timo", he said. "We’ve had a good couple of days getting to know each other and sorting out the notes so he knows exactly how our system works. No problem".

Adding to Makinen’s comments, chief engineer Bernard Lindauer said: "We did also some tyres testing, just trying different compounds for the slippery conditions in Australia. Compared to previous years it is a bit colder and we had some small showers and for sure the weather is a bit more unstable than normal. But we know the Michelin’s work well normally, and having now tested in cooler and damper conditions, we’re happy whatever the weather does".

Rally Australia starts on Thursday 1 November with the first run at the spectacular Langley Park super special stage in the heart of the City of Perth. However, the bulk of the 1,402 kilometre event takes the contenders out into the forests around the Western Australia capital before returning for the finish on Sunday, 4 November.