The opening stage of this rally puts us in a novel situation, because it involves a 700km trip from the service park in Villa Carlos Paz to the impressive River Plate football stadium in Buenos Aires. Obviously it isn't practical for Petter and I to drive the Impreza WRC2007 all that way, so the cars will travel on transporters and we'll fly there. Due to the distance involved, we haven't been able to do a recce, but the layout of this stage is supposed to be exactly the same as the superspecial in the stadium at Cordoba (SS9/22). We do three laps of a course inside the stadium. The idea is that we use our pacenotes for the Cordoba stage for this one too. We'll get the chance to walk the River Plate route before the stage start to check that they are exactly the same. The stadium has a capacity of 65,000, so we're expecting a tremendous atmosphere for the start of the rally. Expect to see Petter up to his usual tricks, hanging out of the car and saluting the crowd after we've completed the stage.

After the superspecial, we get back quite late from Buenos Aires on Thursday night and the next morning we get straight into the gravel stages in an area called the Punilla Valley. SS2, which is situated to the north of Villa Carlos Paz and starts near the town of Capilla del Monte, is identical to a stage used last year. This test actually starts next to the El Cajon lake, which has an impressive dam on it, and runs along the waterside for few kilometres. The stage has got a hard base and is very rocky, with lots of loose stones covering the surface. Obviously, when we come back through in the afternoon, the road will have been swept clean and the times should be much faster. Some parts of this test are very narrow - we broke the window in one such place last year. Incidentally, Capilla del Monte is a popular site for UFO hunters, who might get a shock if they don't know the rally is in town!

From SS2 we head south on a short road section to the next challenge. This one starts on a very fast, wide road and is quick for the first four kilometres, but then narrows. When the road opens out again we go over some very quick jumps where the cars can fly for quite a long distance. We finish over a huge water crossing where we traverse the River Pintos. In fact, there are quite a few river crossings on this stage. The scenery though this area is breathtaking.

After a short refuel halt in La Cumbre, a city where English immigrants chose to settle in the early 1900s, we head south again. Stages four and five both take place close to La Falda, a town about 50km from Villa Carlos Paz. This test packs a great deal into just 15km. We've seen some big crashes on this stage before. There's little opportunity to get into a comfortable driving rhythm, it's got everything from slow twisty sections, to watersplashes, jumps, blind crests and long stretches where we're flat-out in sixth-gear. The stretch to the finish line is very fast and bumpy. You have to be careful to line the car up correctly for the blind crests, then you land, set up for the next one and keep on going like that until the end. It's pretty exciting.

There's no time to relax after SS4, because the road section to SS5 is just 5km. This one was last used in 2005 and it is an unbelievable stage. It's so fast, but also has dozens of junctions, so it's fast, slow, fast, and slow all the way through. It features one of the biggest jumps of the rally at the mid-point - an excellent place for fans to watch the action. This test can get very, very slippery if it rains - that's exactly what happened in 2005 and there were cars going off all over the place!

This is the final stage before the lunchtime service halt on both Friday and Saturday. This stretch of road was used in 2004 and 2005, albeit in the other direction, and this version has a couple of extra kilometres tagged on to the end.

Another superspecial. In theory, it is identical to the one in Buenos Aires, only 700km away! Again, this stage comprises three laps of a circuit laid out inside the football stadium.

Leg two includes five stages to the north of Villa Carlos Paz in the morning, near the location of leg one's action and then another four tests about 60km to the south, in a region known as Calamuchita. The day starts with another familiar piece of road, used in 2005 and 2006, although the stage is about two-and-a-half kilometres shorter for this year. That means we miss out a watersplash near the end. We often get fog on this one, while the surface gets quite rutted quite quickly and there are several hairpin bends where cars have been known to end up on their sides. At the start there's a steep climb along a narrow hill track lined with rocks and boulders, then after that it's downhill pretty much all the way, but the decline is gradual. The stage has a slow average speed - just above 70kph - and you have to be very precise because it's so narrow. Petter and I won this stage in 2004.

This stage has been used for a number of years. We basically run uphill from start to finish, with some sections being quite sharp and fast. Rally Argentina is known for stages becoming rutted very quickly, however this road actually cleans as more cars come through as there is a good base to it. Unusually, the stage can be affected by fog on the higher altitude parts towards the end and if it is wet it can get very muddy and slippy. We were fastest through this stage last year and grabbed the lead of the rally.

This is the first of the stages to the south of Cordoba. It's more flowing than the morning's tests and the average speed is much faster, at approximately 100kph. Nevertheless, it's still quite technical and there's a big watersplash right in front of a spectator grandstand, 1km from the start.

Another stage down south. This one seems to be over very quickly as it's only 16km and very fast. There are some tricky parts but most of it is long straights, some over 800m long, where we'll be going flat out. We go over a big jump midway through. We were joint fastest with Petter's brother Henning through here in 2006.

An amazingly fast stage. In contrast to the previous test, there aren't so many long straights and you have to be very precise through the corners. The stage hasn't changed in the last 10 years, so experience counts for a lot. There is one very technical section, where we bent the steering on the car in 2005.

The classic El Condor is all downhill from 2100 metres to 1400 metres. The speed through here is quite slow because there are some tricky passes and four very narrow wooden slatted bridges to cross. The wires that support the bridges actually come out from the edge, making it very narrow. You definitely can't cut here. The main difference in this stage is the temperature - it's very cool due to the altitude. The stage has a bit of everything - hairpin corners, sprint sections, blind crests - the whole lot really. What makes is so special is the landscape; it's completely barren with huge rocks and boulders all over the place. Any mistakes here and you'll be lucky to complete the stage.

Similar to El Condor except this time it's a climb. This is a mixture of roads used in 2005 and 2006. We start at 976 metres above sea level and finish at 2060 metres. The first four kilometres are really quick, with lots of rocks to avoid and a very soft and rutted road surface. On the tight corners you've no option that to use the ruts to guide the car around the bend.