M-Sport's Ford World Rally team will revisit an old friend this week as the FIA World Rally Championship returns to Turkey – the home of Ford commercials including the Transit.

The Dovenby Hall-based side secured one-two finishes at the event in 2006 and 2009, and are determined to deliver more Turkish delight this year.

Based around the holiday resort of Marmaris, it offers a completely new challenge with speed tests never before used on the world stage.

The team have no previous data from these stages and the crews have to make their pacenotes from scratch, making this the ultimate test on a completely level playing field.

“It’s been a long time since we last welcomed a brand-new event to the championship and I’m sure we’re all in for an exciting weekend of rallying,” said M-Sport’s Cumbrian team principal Malcolm Wilson OBE.

“While we have been to Turkey before, we’ve not visited this region and absolutely everything will be new to both the team and the crews.

“We have no previous data from the stages and the crews will have to make pacenotes from scratch.

“With the other events becoming more and more familiar, this is something completely different and it will be interesting to see who masters the challenge.

“We’re hoping to do just that and both Sébastien [Ogier] and Elfyn [Evans] had two days of testing in Greece to best prepare for the challenges ahead.

“Sébastien may be hampered by his early running order but both could be in with a chance of challenging for the top results.

“Teemu [Suninen] had to go without a test on this occasion but he should not be discounted for a strong result.

“He is such a quick learner and this is a new event which provides something of a level playing field, so it will be interesting to see what he can do.”

But it’s not just the main class M-Sport Ford fans should keep an eye on.

Of the 14 local crews, 12 will compete behind the wheel of the Fiesta and the Blue Oval accounts for a mammoth 67 per cent of the overall entry.

The three Fiesta WRCs are joined by the older-specification Ford Fiesta RS WRC of Yazeed Al-Rajhi, and 10 EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta R5s will also tackle the loose gravel stages – eight of which as part of the WRC 2 category.