But before the third round of the FIA World Rally Championship season heads up into the mountains, all eyes will, as ever, be focused on Guanajuato on Thursday night for one of the highlights of the year.
The streets outside the Alhóndiga de Granaditas museum will be filled with music, dancing and colour as the start ceremony hits full swing. Crews then tackle two passes of Guanajuato’s street stage (1.12km), which runs partly underground through tunnels dating back to when the town was the world’s silver mining centre.
Friday brings a cluster of three tests in the mountains around the town. El Chocolate (31.45km), Ortega (15.61km) and Las Minas (13.61km) take competitors up to almost 2800 metres.
After service in León, the three tests are repeated before two brand-new super special stages close out the day’s action. Las Dunas (3.84km) runs four times over the course of the rally and utilises gravel quarry roads, while Distrito León Mx Rock & Rally (2.83km) runs on asphalt and cobblestones.
It adds up to 128.01km of action, a fraction less than the following day’s 128.61km contained in the mountains north and east of the host city.
Morning runs through Ibarrilla (14.89km), El Mosquito (22.47km), Derramadero (21.69km) and Las Dunas are repeated in the afternoon after service, with another pass of Distrito León Mx Rock & Rally rounding out the penultimate leg.
Sunday’s finale features four stages. It opens with another blast through Las Dunas, which is followed by Otates (35.39km) - the longest of the rally. Next up is San Diego (12.56km), before the event ends with the Wolf Power Stage in El Brinco (9.58km), bringing the day’s tally to 61.37km.
The 23 tests cover 320.23km in a total route of 971.32km.
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