MRF to field two teams

Gill will have Glen Macneall of New Zealand as his co-driver while Australian Chris Murphy will partner Taguchi, a former APRC champion. Both the MRF entries will be in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 10, according to a press release from the Chennai-based tyre manufacturer.

The first of the seven rounds is scheduled to be run at Johor Bahru, Malaysia on April 23-25. MRF have opted out of the New Caledonia round, but will participate in the other rallies in Japan (May 22-23), New Zealand (July 3-4), Australia (July 31-Aug 1), Indonesia (Sep 25-26) and China (Nov 6-7).

The APRC 2010 marks the introduction of the Super 2000 cars against the Group N4 cars in the series. The Super 2000 class, introduced by FIA to encourage more manufacturers, is fully modified production car without the turbo charger for the APRC. The Group N4 cars are unmodified cars which will have a disadvantage over the S2000 Proton Satria. However, the Group N4 cars will be permitted to use a larger restricter which should give the cars a 30-plus BHP advantage.