The Abarth team will be looking to turn around its fortunes rapidly after last month's season-opening Monte Carlo Rally left the team with just a fifth place courtesy of Giandomenico Basso.

The factory Abarth team has been testing the Grande Punto Abarth S2000 in preparation for the forthcoming gravel rounds of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). All three works drivers – Giandomenico Basso, Anton Alén, and Luca Rossetti – spent time behind the wheel of the latest-specification Grande Punto on some gravel stages near Siena in Tuscany.

The test aimed to develop some new running gear on the Grande Punto, and also to reacquaint the drivers with gravel, following the ice and snow of the Monte Carlo Rally.

Alén, who was set for a top-six finish in Monte Carlo before retiring on the final road section, said: “It’s good to get back to driving on gravel again: really fun. We know that the car has plenty of speed on gravel already, now we’re just trying to develop it a bit further and check a couple of new things. I don’t know quite what to expect on the Curitiba Rally as it’s a new experience for me, but I like the sound of it very much.”

The Abarth team will be looking to turn around its fortunes rapidly after last month's season-opening Monte Carlo Rally left the team with just a fifth place finish that came courtesy of Basso. Of his two team mates, Alén retired on the final road section, while Rossetti, making his debut with the team on the rally, crashed out on the first stage. While Brazil will be a new experience for both the IRC and Anton Alén, his famous father Markku previously competed in the country exactly 30 years ago – on the first Rally Internacional do Brasil in 1979.