WORLD RALLY
2008 Rally of Turkey
Day One
On the opening stage of the rally it was Sebastien Loeb who was fastest by 0.7 seconds from Petter Solberg. Third was Mikko Hirvonen followed by team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala who trailed the leader by 0.4 seconds and 2.3 secoonds respectively.
Stage 2 saw the fastest time set by privateer Urmo Aava who was followed by Gigi Galli and Andreas Mikkelsen with gaps of 1.6 and 2.2 seconds respectively. Hirvonen was fourth fastest 2.3 seconds behind with Dani Sordo fifth 6.9 seconds off the pace. Latvala had a front right puncture which cost him 30 seconds.
Latvala claimed his first fastest stage time over 3 with a gap of 15.2 seconds over Sordo with Galli another 2 seconds back. Galli then went fastest over stage 4 followed by Latvala less than a second behind with Henning Solberg third less than a tenth back from Latvala.
Stage 5 saw Galli was fastest again ahead of Latvala by 0.9 seconds who was followed by Hirvonen 1.8 seconds back. Latvala was fastest over stage 6 followed by Hirvonen who was over 10 seconds behind with Loeb less than a second further back.
Loeb claimed fastest time through stage 7 winning it by a margin of 1.3 seconds from Hirvonen with Galli in third 5.5 seconds back. Sordo suffered from a left rear puncture and suspension damage that meant he dropped a minute.
On the penultimate stage of the day it was Galli who claimed his third fastest stage of the day but by a slender margin of 1 tenth of a second from Henning Solberg with Latvala 2.4 seconds back.
The final stage saw tactics emerge with all of the previous top three deliberately slowing down to try and gain more favourable road positions with Latvala dropping from second to third. Hirvonen going from first to fifth and Galli from third to fourth. Henning Solberg claimed the fastest stage time which promoted him to second overall. Second over the stage was Sordo 4.2 seconds back with Matthew Wilson claiming third over six seconds back from Henning Solberg.
Loeb stated that “Our aim was to drop as little time as possible. With road-sweeping duty to do on five of today's stages, plus three repeated stages – on which there was a good chance that the conditions wouldn't be ideal – that's what I reckoned we were likely to lose.” Loeb had managed to calculate that he would drop around a minute with having to clean the roads.
Hirvonen stated that Loeb had driven well. Hirvonen said: “He drove well in his start position and there's a lot for me to learn from him today. Even though my driving style is more sideways than his, there was still a cleaner line for me to follow. I was able to both drive quickly and control the situation when I needed to tonight.”
Latvala stated: “The team strategy was to not be first in the order tomorrow. It's not easy there in these conditions, I don't like it and I didn't want to be there. You need experience to perform that role well and I don't have that. The plan was to be in front of Mikko and I feel very satisfied tonight,”
End of Day One
| 1 Sebastien Loeb | Citroen C4 | 2h 2m 35.2s |
| 2 Henning Solberg | Ford Focus | + 1.0s |
| 3 Jari-Matti Latvala | Ford Focus | + 1.1s |
| 4 Gigi Galli | Ford Focus | + 2.2s |
| 5 Mikko Hirvonen | Ford Focus | + 6.9s |
| 6 Petter Solberg | Subaru Impreza | + 49.1s |
| 7 Matthew Wilson | Ford Focus | + 1m 5.9s |
| 8 Dani Sordo | Citroen C4 | + 1m 6.8s |
| 9 Toni Gardemeister | Suzuki SX4 | + 2m 27.0s |
| 10 Conrad Rautenbach | Citroen C4 | + 2m 50.0s |
Day Two
On the opening stage of day 2 it was Hirvonen who took advantage of his road position by setting the fastest time from Latvala with a gap of 2.9 seconds with Loeb only a further second back. On stage 11 Hirvonen was again fastest and now regained the rally lead from his team-mate Latvala, who was now nearly three seconds back. Both Suzuki drivers retired on this stage with Toni Gardemeister having a broken radiator and team-mate Per Gunnar Andersson retiring with an electrical problem.
Stage 12 saw a surprise at the top end of the timesheets with Aava first followed by Chris Atkinson 0.9 seconds further back. Both drivers had restarted under SuperRally rules. Hirvonen was third 3.5 seconds back with Sordo fourth 4.9 back.
The next two stages saw Hirvonen fastest on the first test with Latvala quickest on the next stage. Hirvonen was quickest by 3.5 seconds on the first test but Latvala only took 0.7 seconds back on the next test.
Stage 15 saw Hirvonen share fastest time with Loeb and they were quicker than Latvala by 3.9 seconds.
The final stage of the day saw Loeb go fastest again by 1.5 seconds ahead of Henning Solberg who had a new gearbox fitted at the start of the day.Hirvonen was 2.2 seconds back ahead of Petter Solberg who was 6 tenths of a second slower than Hirvonen. Galli and Latvala lost three seconds to Loeb. Galli had struggled all day long with boost valve failure that had cost the Italian four minutes.
Hirvonen reflected: “Thirty-four seconds over Loeb is good but 40sec would have been comfortable… I have to be realistic. I came here to regain the championship lead and that's my main aim for tomorrow. That's more important to me than winning this rally.”
Latvala said “Tomorrow will have lots of hard driving, maximum concentration and plenty of effort to try to keep Loeb behind.”
Loeb said: “Everybody knows how difficult it is to run first on the road…There's no point in moaning about it, or criticising the regulations or the tactics of our rivals. The only answer is to drive as fast as possible!”
End of Day Two
| 1 Mikko Hirvonen | Ford Focus | 3h 47m 37.7s |
| 2 Jari-Matti Latvala | Ford Focus | + 16.2s |
| 3 Sebastien Loeb | Citroen C4 | + 34.3s |
| 4 Henning Solberg | Ford Focus | + 2m 8.5s |
| 5 Dani Sordo | Citroen C4 | + 2m 15.1s |
| 6 Petter Solberg | Subaru Impreza | + 2m 33.7s |
| 7 Matthew Wilson | Ford Focus | + 3m 41.2s |
| 8 Gigi Galli | Ford Focus | + 5m 20.1s |
| 9 Conrad Rautenbach | Citroen C4 | + 6m 8.6s |
| 10 Federico Villagra | Ford Focus | + 7m 43.8s |
Day Three
The first stage of only three today saw Aava claim fastest time by 3.2 seconds from Mikkelsen with Sordo third 5.8 seconds back. Latvala came in fourth 7.4 back with Loeb less than a second further back while rally leader Hirvonen dropped 16 seconds to Aava.
The penultimate stage of the day was completed in a time of 4 minutes 11.2 seconds and the man who set this formidable time was Loeb. The gaps to those behind were Hirvonen 0.9 seconds back with Chris Atkinson a further three seconds back. Latvala was 6.1 seconds with Mikkelsen seven tenths of a second back.
The final stage of the day and the rally saw the fastest time go to Latvala with Hirvonen 4.8 seconds back with Loeb five seconds back.
This meant the rally win and the lead of the world championship before the summer break went to Hirvonen. Latvala finished second on the Rally of Turkey while Loeb completed the podium positions. Dani Sordo managed to get back to fourth position – a good result for the Spaniard who had a tough rally.
Hirvonen reflected on his triumph in Turkey by stating: “I promised Malcolm Wilson I would lead the championship going into my home rally in Finland next month and I am. It was an incredibly hard weekend for drivers, cars and tyres and a great battle with Jari-Matti, which I'm so happy to win. It feels very special to beat a four-time world champion in a straight fight.”
The Ford team were also celebrating a landmark achievement with the team recording a one-two added to a run of 100 consecutive points finishes and has become the first team to be able to do this and the run started with the 2002 Monte Carlo Rally.
Final standings
| 1 Mikko Hirvonen | Ford Focus | 4h 42m 7.1s |
| 2 Jari-Matti Latvala | Ford Focus | + 7.9s |
| 3 Sebastien Loeb | Citroen C4 | + 25.7s |
| 4 Dani Sordo | Citroen C4 | + 2m 25.6s |
| 5 Henning Solberg | Ford Focus | + 2m 33.7s |
| 6 Petter Solberg | Subaru Impreza | + 2m 48.2s |
| 7 Matthew Wilson | Ford Focus | + 4m 24.2s |
| 8 Conrad Rautenbach | Citroen C4 | + 7m 46.7s |
| 9 Federico Villagra | Ford Focus | + 9m 34.1s |
| 10 Barry Clark | Ford Focus | + 14m 48.8s |
All results subject to FIA approval.
Thanks to Ford, Citroen and Subaru World Rally Teams for the pictures
Ciarán McBride