Yates to measure himself against French experts

Rhys Yates will swap Kielder for Monaco as he looks to get the asphalt section of the British Rally Championship off to a good start with preparation on Rally Antibes.

The 24-year-old, who took second on the BRC season-opening Pirelli International Rally last month, will head to the French Rally Championship event that uses the infamous Col de Turini stage in his CA1 Sport-run Skoda Fabia R5.

“We won’t need to put the car back into gravel spec until Rally GB, so we thought the sooner we get back onto Tarmac the better,” said Yates. “We like to do different events, it’s a lot of miles and good testing.”

Yates scored his best BRC result on the Pirelli, and is hoping that his performance on his favoured surface, asphalt, improves through the year.

“It was a big confidence boost to think we caught and passed a four-time British champion on the last few stages,” said Yates of his final stage beating of Keith Cronin. “If you look at last year we were probably a step ahead on Tarmac, so if we can carry that over with the pace we’ve found over the winter, then hopefully we’ll be fighting right at the front.”

Yates won’t be short of competition on this event. WRC2 regular Yoann Bonato gives the new Citroen C3 R5 another outing, while Tour de Corse and Monte winner Bryan Bouffier switches to a Hyundai i20 R5.