Indian driver Gaurav Gill leads the championship by 16 points after he and Australian co-driver, Glenn Macneall, won the opening two rounds.
Their Race Torque prepared Skoda Fabia R5 has performed faultlessly so far this season, and both are looking forward to the new challenge in Zhangye – an event that is being run as a round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship for the first time.
Team-mates Fabian Kreim and Frank Christian sit in second place in the title race, and the young Germans have so far been disadvantaged at each event, having never competed on them before.
However, in China all crews will be new to the event, so they’ll be hoping that are in with a good chance of taking their first victory for Team MRF.
So important is the Chinese market to Skoda that Kreim will miss this weekend’s round of the German Rally Championship, in which he is a front-runner.
Team Manager of Team MRF, Lane Heenan, is expecting a close battle between his drivers.
“This is a new event, with stages that are reported to be the best in the Chinese Rally Championship, so we’re looking forward to the rally immensely,” Heenan said.
“The rally base is a long way from any port, so it’s been a bit of an adventure to get here, but both drivers are really eager to get underway.
“Gill has shown his experience over the first two rounds this year, but both drivers will be on an even playing field this time around, and we’re expecting Fabian to show good speed.”
China is one of the biggest markets in the world for Skoda sales, making the rally an important one for Team MRF.
Last year the team took victory in the event with Sweden’s Pontus Tidemand behind the wheel.
The China Rally Zhangye is based in the west of the country, and temperatures of up to 28 degrees are expected during the event.
With a population of 1.4 billion people, rallying is huge in China, with national championship rounds regularly attracting more than 120 entries, with individual teams of up to 10 cars.
The rally runs on Saturday and Sunday.