ANKARA, Turkey - Sebastien Loeb of France won his third consecutive World Rally Championship round after leading in all four stages on the final day of the Rally of Turkey.
The Citroen C4 driver clinched his third Turkish Rally title by finishing with a 54.5-second lead over Norway's Petter Solberg, also in a Citroen.
Finland's Mikko Hirvonen, driving a Ford Focus RS, was third in the mostly gravel and asphalt event after skidding off the track and damaging a tire.
"The stage was clean: there were some big jumps and I really enjoyed it," Loeb was quoted as saying on the rally's official Web site. Loeb previously won the Rally of Turkey in 2004 and 2005.
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Loeb leads into final day in Turkey / By Matt Beer
Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, Rally of Turkey 2010Sebastien Loeb will take a 16-second lead into the deciding leg of the Rally of Turkey as the leaders all spurned slowing tactics on Saturday's final stage.In contrast to recent gravel rallies, and following the controversy that erupted over the deliberate penalties some incurred in the Jordan Rally to help their team-mates, the top drivers all went flat-out through today's stages in Turkey.
Loeb admitted that running first on the road tomorrow could be a disadvantage, as he suspects conditions will be more dusty on leg three, but the Citroen number one said he preferred to try and win from the front.
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Ogier holds lead into leg two in Turkey / By Matt Beer
Sebastien Ogier, Citroen Junior, Rally of Turkey 2010Sebastien Ogier will take a 5.5-second lead over Dani Sordo into day two of the Rally of Turkey, but Mikko Hirvonen is looming close behind in third.Citroen Junior driver Ogier gradually edged away from the field today, and increased his gap over Sordo (Citroen) by 3s on this evening's superspecial, where Ogier was second only to Citroen team leader Sebastien Loeb.
The usual frontrunners have been biding their time on leg one, keen to avoid running first on the dusty roads tomorrow. Hirvonen is arguably in the strongest position as he sits third, 12s down on Ogier, while Loeb is fifth behind Petter Solberg, and 27.5s adrift of the lead. He also has Ford number two Jari-Matti Latvala just 2.6s behind him.
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RALLY OF TURKEY - Press Conference - Pre-Event 2010 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
Welcome to the pre-event FIA press conference.Present:
Mikko Hirvonen, BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
Kimi Raikkonen, Citroen Junior Team
Dani Sordo, Citroen Total World Rally Team
Matthew Wilson, Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team
Aaron Burkart, FIA Junior World Rally Championship
Thierry Neuville, FIA Junior World Rally Championship
Q:
Mikko, Rally Turkey has featured on the calendar since 2003 but now we move to a new base near Istanbul, what are your first impressions of the stages?
MH:
For sure, it is completely different. The stages are a lot faster, some are basically straight – and they are quite rough in places as well. The organisers fixed the roads with abrasive gravel, so it will be tough on the cars.
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WRC Rally in Kemer
High above the well known holiday resort Kemer in the picturesque surrounding of the Taurus Mountains the actual meeting of the worlds best pilots for rally cars took place as run 8 in the World Championship WRC from the 12th to the 15th of June 2008. It was the fifth Rally of Turkey since 2003.Forty-three crews are gearing up to do battle on Rally of Turkey, round four of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Because of the not really exiting road conditions everybody was already expecting a quite dusty event. On the way to the different tracks you could notice because the parts of real roads were rare, more or less there was no asphalt at all.
On the way to the certain view points for the spectators you easily found out that something was going on in the forests high in the Taurus Mountains because of the huge dusty clouds hanging between the trees. The bending stony roads, the serpentines and the car jumps offered spectacular scenes and great action to the viewers. For the drivers and their technical stuff it means endless repairs, high risk because of serious accidents and the always existing danger of destroyed tyres.Highlight of the event for most of the spectators is the dual slalom which is taking place in the stadium of Antalya during couple of night shows where it is easier to follow the races. Another fascinating view point is the driver’s camp next to Kemer.
Most of the foreign visitors come from countries which are the so called mother countries of Rally sports, as there are the Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Finland and Norway. Especially because of the date of the event lot of visitors combine watching the rally with spending a couple of days at the sea side.
Because of the brilliant training conditions in their home country nobody was really surprised to find two drivers from Finland in the first two positions of the race. After being in the leading position on the first day French driver Sebastian Loeb got into the position to follow the two drivers from Finland Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala as a kind of vacuum cleaner while passing the special tests which meant a huge loss of time following him. Fans from Norway enjoyed the results of Henning and Peter Solberg on position 5 and 6 after finishing the races. Per-Gunnar Andersson from Sweden could not repair his electrical faults and needed to give up. If you are interested to read more about the Rally of Kemer, please visit the website which offers more details and information in Turkish and English language. Next to the time tables you will get nice road- and track maps, quite surprising because getting road maps has always been a problem in Turkey. So if once you are interested to follow the events just hire a car and you will easily reach the different viewers points at the track. There is still a very important point to mention: after the races you should try to reach the next mountain creek or the sea side as quick as possible to get rid of all the dust. Don’t wait to return into your hotel room your shower may collapse because of the huge amount of dust from your body. If you really enthusiastic fan of Rally sports or not, everybody will really enjoy this spectacular event to watch the worlds best drivers in a natural surrounding of the Taurus Mountains. So whenever returning back to Turkey for holiday and there is the chance for WRC Rally to watch at Kemer, don’t miss it.
Rally Turkey 2008 Results * Pos. Driver Team Time *
1 Mikko HIRVONEN (FIN) Ford Focus 4h42'07"1 *
2 Jari-Matti LATVALA (FIN) Ford Focus à 7"9 *
3 Sébastien LOEB (FRA) Citroën C4 à 25"7 *
4 Daniel SORDO (ESP) Citroën C4 à 2'25"6 *
5 Henning SOLBERG (NOR) Ford Focus (Munchi's) à 2'33"7 *
6 Petter SOLBERG (NOR) Subaru Impreza à 2'48"2 *
7 Matthew WILSON (GBR) Ford Focus (Stobart) à 4'24"2 *
8 Conrad RAUTENBACH (ZIM) Citroën C4 à 7'46"7 *
9 Federico VILLAGRA (ARG) Ford Focus (Munchi's) à 9'34"1 1 *
10 Barry CLARK (GBR) Ford Focus à 14'48"8
