Hyundai Motorsport headed to the roads of Turin, Italy for three days of tarmac testing for their New Generation i20 R5, completing over 900 kilometres of running through over three days.

Test and development driver Kevin Abbring headed up the test alongside co-driver Seb Marshall along a route of fast flowing roads, providing similar altitude conditions to Rallye Monte-Carlo as the team push the performance of the 1.6 litre engine. The second day saw the pair tackle a long sequence of hairpins, focusing on the handling of the i20 under heavy braking.

Over the course of the test the team were also testing new tarmac specification gear ratios, completing a similar distance to a full WRC round each day as the Customer Racing department work towards the planned homologation of the New Generation i20 R5 in the summer.

“To have completed more than 900 kilometres of testing, over three days is a great sign at this point in the New Generation i20 R5’s development.” said Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing Department Manager Andrea Adamo.

“It shows that we have the car running reliably, which is of course something our customers will need when they compete on events. In building a car that is designed to be driven on rallies all over the world it is important that we test on different types of stages.

“After the rough gravel and quick tarmac sections we were able to run on in France, the shift to Italy gave us two very different courses. It was a great setting to work on the braking system and to continue to develop the gearbox. We have a full schedule ahead of us now, with more tests to come before the homologation date in the summer and the launch of the car.”

Hyundai Motorsport will remain in Italy for the next few weeks as they test on both gravel and tarmac conditions. Following the test Abbring and Marshall will head to Portugal for their first WRC start of the year with the Hyundai Mobis World Rally Team.