A new route

The Rally of Turkey joined the WRC calendar in 2003 and since then has always taken place between Antalya and Kemer, in the mountains of the Mediterranean coast that overlooks Cyprus. When the event returned to the calendar in 2010, after a year off due to the alternation rule, the rally organised by the Turkish Federation moved to Istanbul, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus River. The Istanbul region has often played host to closed road events counting for the European Rally Championship, such as the Gunaydin Rally in the 1990s, and it was also the scene of a round of the IRC championship in 2007. Formula 1 people know this suburb of Istanbul well, as it is where the Istanbul Park circuit is located, which hosts the Turkish Grand Prix every year. Now it was down to the world rally crews to get to grips with a new route consisting of stages that were for the most part wide and fast.

Another peculiarity of this route, situated between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, was the 40 kilometres or so of asphalt that formed part of the second day. The last rally held on mixed surfaces, Cyprus in 2009, worked well for Sébastien Loeb and Citroën, who claimed victory. The biggest difficulty for the competitors in Turkey consisted of taking the most precise notes possible over the two low-speed passes of the recce (at about 70kph) whilst trying to imagine what it would feel like at full speed during the rally. It was an art that Sebastien Loeb - who opened the road on Friday by virtue of his championship lead - excelled in. Fresh from his two previous successes on the last two rallies, which gave him an advantage of 25 points (the equivalent of a win) the six-time World Champion knew that he would emerge from round four in the lead of the standings, whatever happened.

One of the points in common held by everyone coming into this event was a desire to forget the fiasco of team orders that characterised the Jordan Rally. While the new rules issued by the FIA did not immediately come into force in Turkey, both Citroen Racing Director Olivier Quesnel and M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson reached an agreement not to tamper with the classification, in order to preserve sporting integrity.

Loeb increasingly stronger

After the start ceremony, which took place in the shadow of the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul city centre, the rally got going for real on Friday morning. The first day of the new look Rally of Turkey stood out through the domination of the event by a young Frenchman: Sébastien Ogier. Forming part of the Citroën Junior Team alongside Kimi Raikkonen, the former Junior World Rally Champion put in another stunning performance that led him to the top of the time sheets ahead of Dani Sordo. Handicapped by his position of first on the road, Sébastien Loeb was nonetheless able to limit the damage. By the end of the opening day he was fifth overall. Sébastien Ogier continued his demonstration run on Saturday at the wheel of his Citroën C4 WRC. The Frenchman, who one day may become the heir to Sébastien Loeb, was able to maintain the lead of the rally despite running first on the road. He was undoubtedly helped by the nature of the route, which was partially asphalted and so limited the handicap of road-sweeping. Unfortunately on SS15 Sébastien Ogier lost three minutes with a puncture. "It was in a very fast section of the stage" he said. "The tyre went down straight away, without us hitting anything at all. Changing the tyre cost us about three minutes and especially the chance to do well at the finish."

While one C4 WRC slipped down the order, another made progress. Sébastien Loeb started fifth but gradually climbed up the order in order to end the day as leader. At that point he had about 15 seconds over Petter Solberg and practically the same margin over Mikko Hirvonen. Dani Sordo was fourth and still in a position to contemplate victory. The rain that has been anticipated for several days finally fell on Saturday night, and prompted the cancellation of the first two stages on Sunday. These weather conditions worked in Sebastien Loeb's favour, who found a more compact and less slippery surface than he was expecting. The Citroën driver continued to push hard right up to the end, in order to eliminate the final threat to his victory. "I pushed hard to the finish because Petter Solberg was still very close," he said once it was all over.

While Loeb did a great job to win, and his key rival Mikko Hirvonen lost more points by finishing only third, the Citroën team was disappointed by the loss of Dani Sordo. The Spaniard was in a position to finish on the podium or at least take points for third in the manufacturers' championship, before going off the road and retiring. The Citroën Junior Team though took its best result in Turkey since the start of the season, thanks to fourth and fifth places respectively for Sébastien Ogier and Kimi Raikkonen. Heading into the next rally, New Zealand from May 7-9, Sébastien Loeb has a 40 point advantage in the drivers' rankings while Citroën Total has a 15 point lead over Ford.