Carlos Sainz has won the first Rally of Turkey, beating Richard Burns and Francois Duval. Sainz took the lead when Harri Rovanpera had technical difficulties on day two, and never looked back. Citroen had a good showing, with Colin McCrae taking fourth, and no doubt Seb Loeb would have finished in the points as well had he not gotten, erm, lost on the road section between stages on day one.

So what have we learned? Well, first, I was certainly a bit hasty writing Ford off in my pre-season notes. Markko Martin would have been competing for a podium had he not had transmission issues on day one, and Duval had a fine rally, finishing third. I fully expect to see either Duval or Martin on the top step of the podium at one event (if not more) this year. Citroen has moved into position to really compete for the maker’s championship, with the Xsara WRC proving to be extremely reliable on what should be the roughest event of the championship. Citroen should be able to compete with Peugeot in New Zealand (which is generally a very fast loose surface rally) giving them an edge going into the next spell of rougher rallies (Greece and Cyprus). Peugeot wishes they could do this one over. Though Burns took second, Gronholm barely squeaked into the points in ninth, clearly disappointed with the rally. Gilles Panizzi finished fifth (a fantastic event for the tarmac specialist), but alas, since he was in a customer car, he wasn’t nominated for maker’s points. Poor, poor Subaru. Petter Solberg was a victim of a spin on day one, and Tommi Makinen never found his groove, though at least he finished in the points in eighth. Toni Gardemeister of Skoda had a fine event, finishing seventh, and pulling ahead of Hyundai in the maker’s championship. More importantly for the team, Skoda has scored maker’s points in every rally this season. Hyundai started the event well, with Freddy Loix and Armin Schwarz both flying on day one, but the lack of testing caught up them, and neither finished in the points.

So, what’s next? Off to the fast, smooth roads of New Zealand, where Gronholm hopes to get this championship defense back on track.

Posted on 2 March 2003