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Following the victory of Luc Alphand and Gilles Picard (France) with the petrol-powered Pajero/Montero Evolution MPR13 on May's Rali Transiberico, Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart continues its 2008 cross-country program with a three-car line-up for the Baja Espana, round three of the 2008 FIA International Cup for Cross Country Bajas.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) and its motorsport unit MMSP have entered Pajero/Montero Evolution MPR13s for Luc Alphand/Gilles Picard and Joan 'Nani' Roma/Lucas Cruz (Spain), while Hiroshi Masuoka and Pascal Maimon (Japan/France) make their return to the competitive scene with the latest diesel-engined MPR14.

Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart travels to Spain with the objective of repeating its one-two finishes on the Baja Espana in 2005 and 2007, although Team Director Dominique Serieys (France) is expecting some stiff opposition. "This event is the third of the program we announced at the beginning of the year," he explains. "We go to Zaragoza with two main objectives. The first is to keep our drivers and co-drivers match fit in readiness for the challenge of the 2009 Dakar which awaits them in South America next January. Indeed, the Baja Espana stages are fairly representative of the terrain they can expect in Argentina in six months' time.

Our other aim is to continue the development of the diesel-engined Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution MPR14 which showed significant promise on the recent Rali Transiberico. It claimed three stage wins in the hands of Nani Roma and has just returned from an encouraging test in southern Spain and Morocco where we were able to validate several solutions aimed at enhancing its endurance and speed. As was the case on the Central Europe Rally, it will be driven by Hiroshi Masuoka whose co-driver Pascal Maimon has fully recovered from the fractured ankle he sustained in Romania. Nani and Luc will spearhead our bid to win the Baja Espana with the MPR13 for the third time in four years, but success for the diesel car is by no means out of the question. There will be a strong field, though, and we will need to hit the ground running."

Hiroshi Masuoka has every intention of doing his best to repeat Roma's leading performance at Transiberico. The Japanese driver is particularly upbeat following the team's recent test work with the new car, but acknowledges that he lacks recent experience of the Baja Espana. "I last contested this event some 15 years ago," he confirms, "and it was a very different event back then. However, I'm delighted to say that Pascal Maimon is now 100 per cent fit again after a final operation to the ankle he fractured on the Central Europe Rally in April. On top of that, we've just come back from a very positive 3,000km test which has taken the diesel-engined MPR14 a further step forward. It has improved enormously since the CER - especially the engine cooling system - and should be even more powerful and reliable. It would be fantastic if I could give it its first win..."