After a five-week break the WRC returns to action in Spain next week for the first of two asphalt events on consecutive weekends that could go a long way to deciding the 2008 FIA World Rally Championship titles.

The rally

The Rally de Espana, formerly Rally de Catalunya, is now a classic event in the World Rally Championship, but has only been based to the south of Barcelona since 2005 and presents drivers with a relatively new collection of stages. The route runs around the holiday resort of Salou, on the Costa Daurada coast, with the service park situated in the Port Aventura theme park. All but one of the stages are in the Tarragona region, an hour's drive from Barcelona.

The sweeping roads of the event are fast and flowing and are often likened to a race circuit. The asphalt is smooth but abrasive in places, and can quickly become slippery as drivers cut across the open corners to shave tenths of a second from their stage times and drag stones and dirt onto the surface.

This year’s schedule is broadly the same as last year’s, although organisers have introduced two new stages and changed several more. Each day comprises two passes over a different loop of three stages.

After Thursday evening's start ceremony on the seafront in Salou, crews tackle the longest day of the rally on Friday with 131.76km of competition. Saturday's second day north-west of Salou includes two new tests and the 38.27km El Priorat - La Ribera d'Ebre, the longest of the event. Sunday’ route takes crews west of the town and onto three stages unchanged from last year, before the finish in Salou at 1507hrs. In total the 18 stages cover 353.62km in a route of 1313.99km.

In accordance with the 2008 regulations just one tyre pattern is available from Pirelli. The PZero asphalt tyre will be available in both hard and soft compound but there will be no other option for specific dry or wet weather.

Who’s going to win?

With three wins from the last three rallies in Spain, Sebastien Loeb has to be the favourite to do it again. But after throwing away victory in New Zealand, Mikko Hirvonen and the Ford team are fired up and promising revenge.

If Hirvonen or Ford are to have any chance of winning their respective championships this year they have to try and beat Loeb in Spain and Corsica. But for that they’re going to have to break Citroen’s four year asphalt stranglehold.

After the mixed conditions of Rallye Monte Carlo and the broken surface of Rally Deutschland, Spain’s smooth black-top makes it the first pure asphalt rally of the year. And on this surface Loeb has been unbeatable since 2004, when Markko Martin won for Ford in Spain.

Now, in light of the disaster in New Zealand, Ford’s team boss Malcolm Wilson has set his team the target of ending Citroen’s domination. This rally could be win or bust for Ford and Hirvonen.

To boost its chances Ford has strengthened its squad by replacing newcomer Jari-Matti Latvala with asphalt driving expert Francois Duval in the second Focus for both of the back-to-back events. The team’s preparations for Spain have been meticulous and exhaustive. Hirvonen and Duval carried out six days of asphalt testing last week, while Hirvonen has had cramming sessions in the UK with a driving coach.

The battle between second drivers Sordo and Dual is shaping up to be just as exciting as the one between their team leaders. Both have a crucial role to play in deciding the manufacturers contest and both have finished second on this rally before. Either one is capable of winning.

Then of course there’s Latvala, who could still worry the favourites in his Stobart team car. Also capable of springing a surprise is The Subaru World Rally Team which will be running a trio of Impreza WRC2008s for the first time, with Frenchman Brice Tirabassi lining up alongside regular drivers Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson.

The Subarus were the closest to the Citroens and Fords on the last asphalt round, and with the benefit of six weeks of analysis and development, the Japanese team could pull something out of the bag.