Never having competed in the Middle East before, Toni Gardemeister and P-G Andersson were both keen to get into the 2.5km shakedown stage, located just north of the service park on the banks of the Dead Sea.

Both cars completed their final test before the start without major problems, with Gardemeister and Andersson using the time to conclude their set-up for this fifth round of the World Rally Championship.

Following a successful test at shakedown, both cars went through their final preparation procedure before they were taken up the road to the ceremonial start on the banks of the Dead Sea. Following the start, the two Suzuki SX4 WRCs were locked into parc ferme for the night before the start of the competitive action in the morning.

Driver news:

Toni Gardemeister: This is something new for me ­ I've never rallied in these kind of conditions before. The recce showed how precise we are going to have to be on these roads. There are some big rocks right at the side of the stage, rocks which could end the rally.

Having said that, in some places you can go 100 metres off the line of the corner and not hit anything, then in the next bend, you couldn't go 10cm too wide without hitting a very big rock. The blind crests are going to be very interesting. You think its going to be straight after the crest and then there¹s a square corner right ahead of you ­ it's very hard to read these roads.

I start this event chasing points. I am confident this is possible. Equally, I think this will be an event with plenty of incidents. It¹s certainly going to be an exciting rally.

P-G Andersson: The shakedown was quite good this morning. I was also pleased with the handling of the car. We have made some adjustments to the car and they've worked well. The shakedown road itself wasn¹t all that representative of the stages to come, so we can¹t really draw too many conclusions about what to expect, but I'm feeling positive and looking forward to the challenge of this new rally in Jordan. One thing is for sure, the stages will be fast and very tricky in places. On some of the long straights, it's really hard to pick out the road ­ everything looks grey and with very little definition.

Team news:

Paul Wilding, Suzuki World Rally Team manager: This has the look of an extremely difficult event. And the weather is going to make it even tougher with temperatures of 40 degrees plus. The recce went very well for us and the drivers are reporting that the stages are very tricky, with some really fast sections and hard-packed roads. We are looking forward to this rally and we have prepared well. We have shown in previous events that we can be competitive with the other WRC cars and that's what we want in Jordan. At the same time, we can learn about the set-up of the car in preparation for the next three similar rallies to come in Sardinia, Greece and Turkey."