M-Sport Ford World Rally team’s Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninen will make a return to Tarmac when the FIA World Rally Championship ventures to Corsica Linea - Tour de Corse, which begins tomorrow.

Having already proven the pace of their EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta WRC on snow and gravel, the duo will be looking to do the same on asphalt – challenging for the top results at the legendary Rally of 10,000 corners.

Both top-specification Fiestas will be fitted with the latest aerodynamic updates and the team conducted a comprehensive two-day test on the island earlier this week, targeting various set-up configurations for optimum performance.

The event also marks the debut outing for the team’s all-new Ford F-Max trucks. The F-Max is this year’s International Truck of the Year and is a truly international Ford product – starting life in the Dunton design studio before being built and distributed by Ford Otosan in Turkey.

The two F-Max trucks will accompany the team throughout the remainder of the European season – keeping M-Sport Ford on track while being proudly displayed in the service parks of Europe.

Dovenby Hall-based team principal Richard Millener said: “Having already proven our pace on snow and gravel, I’m confident that we can do the same on asphalt.

“The Fiesta has always had a good chassis for sealed-surface rallying, and the team have been working extremely hard to fine-tune the set-up and ensure we’re as ready as we can be.

“The vast majority of the route is new this year which provides something of a level playing field, and there’ll also be a real element of endurance on Friday when we complete the whole day without service.

“The crews are going to have to be especially focused and a clever drive could well bring home the points.”

Evans said: “I’m looking forward to the first proper Tarmac event of the season, and this year’s Tour de Corse will be a real challenge with about two-thirds of the route made up of completely new stages.

“The recce is going to be really important and there’s going to be a lot of work needed on the pacenotes. This is a demanding rally but the stages themselves are really nice to drive. It was great to get a podium last time out in Mexico, and that really propelled us up the championship standings.

“It gives us a top-five starting position this week, and we need to capitalise on that and aim for another strong result. We spent two days testing together with Teemu and the car feels really good.

“Everything went to plan and I feel as though we should have some good pace. We’re all looking for another podium and will work as hard as we can to achieve it.”