02 March 2003 - 20:10 Carlos Sainz wins Rally of Turkey 2003 Richard Burns leads World Championship

The Kemer stage was the final round of this fourth edition of the Rally of Turkey. Marcus Gronholm took its fourth fastest time since the beginning of the rally. The Finn was 9''6 ahead of its closest competitor, Colin McRae, who ends just one place away from a podium finish in the overall standings. The British driver gets five points in the process and with Carlos Sainz' win, Citroen Sport's points total is now 39, enough to keep the lead in the constructor's championship. Citroen is now 8 points ahead of their main rival, Peugeot Sport.

By winning the Rally of Turkey, Carlos Sainz equals his teammate for the all-time number of wins in the world championship.

Richard Burns grabs second place overall by finishing 47'9 behind Carlos Sainz. By scoring eight points in this event, the British driver now leads the driver's championship by one point over Colin McRae who is second.

Fransois Duval finishes on the last step of the podium for third place overall. The Belgian driver brings home six points, making it the best event so far this year for Ford.

Gilles Panizzi gets a well-deserved fifth place overall that enables him to score points exclusively in the driver's championship, his first point result of the season.

This second round of the Junior World Championship is won by Kosti Katajamaki. The Volkswagen Polo driver was excluded from the Monte-Carlo event after a technical inspection revealed that his brakes were not legal, losing in the process his second position behind Brice Tirabassi.

Day 1
The competitors in this inaugural Rally of Turkey were expecting difficult roads conditions for this World Rally Championship event and both drivers and their cars were not spared. The race was even more rough than imagined and many were suffering from the unforgiving roads.

To win here, you need to know how to keep your cool and save your car and also have some luck on your side. Harri Rovanpera was in fact lucky since he was able to successfully avoid all the pitfalls but his experience was the element that brings him the lead in the race so far in this rally.

Day 2
The second leg of the Rally of Turkey was just as tough for everyone as yesterday. The roads put the cars to the test and many unexpected situations made the results unpredictable. Only Fransois Duval was able to stay in the top three from yesterday. Strangely, the Finns Rovanpera and Makinen are the ones who got in trouble and were replaced in the top three by Carlos Sainz and Richard Burns, the Spanish driver in front of the British one. Turkey does not seem to be a good place for Scandinavian drivers. If Sweden brings the best in them, maybe Turkey will become the favourite place of drivers from countries a little bit more to the south!

The Citroen Xsara at ease on all surfaces
Peugeot has definitely found a rival for the World Rally Championship. A true rival that is none other than their sister company Citroлn. By winning the Rally of Turkey, Carlos Sainz confirms the Xsara's ability to be competitive on all surfaces. Not only is the Xsara dominating on asphalt, it can also match the 206 on gravel. If the Subaru drivers can be more successful in the next events and the young drivers at Ford can keep up their progress, we might be witnessing one of the most exciting season ever.

Sainz wins once again
It has been a while since Carlos Sainz' last success. The Spanish driver was handed a win last year after the Peugeot 206 WRC were disqualified but his last ''true'' win came in the Rally of Cyprus 2000! This win brings his total to 25, an all-time record shared with another Citroen driver: Colin McRae. The Scotsman had also a good rally in Turkey, his fourth place enables Citroen to clinch first place in the constructor's championship and to put him in second position in the driver's championship, only one point behind the new leader.

Richard Burns the new leader
With Sainz' win and McRae's fourth place, Peugeot sees the gap between themselves and Citroen grow. However, Peugeot has one reason to celebrate since one of their driver, Richard Burns, takes the lead in the driver's championship. The British driver has yet to win in the 206 but by scoring points in all the first three rounds of the season, it makes Peugeot situation better than most other teams. Marcus Gronholm, ninth, brings another point for his team. Only too bad Gilles Panizzi was not nominated by his team... it would have given an extra two very valuable points for them. However, we should not forget that Rovanpera's performance confirms that the Finn was even faster on this difficult surface.

First podium finish for Duval
The young drivers at Ford may surprise us this year. After three events, the team managed by Malcom Wilson is only six points behind Peugeot, second in the championship. This good performance is primarily achieved by Markko Martin and his reliable style, clinching points in all three rounds. The Estonian was sixth in the Rally of Turkey after a great come back in the last two days. Ford also scored points with Fransois Duval, who had his best ever finish in a WRC by finishing on the podium.

Gardemeister impresses
One point in Sweden, two in Turkey, Toni Gardemeister is achieving great results with an Octavia not on the same level as the top competitors. The Finn was able to take advantage of his car's assets: robustness and reliability to bring three more points to Skoda.

Hyundai needs to improve their reliability
The rally started quite well for Hyundai, their drivers being able to squeeze regularly in the top six. Unfortunately, reliability problems took both Accent out of the race. Armin Schwarz had to retire early on and Freddy Loix' race was very difficult, notably with big throttle problems.

Competitive but not lucky
The Subaru's potential is there. Petter Solberg showed that to everyone at the beginning of the rally by taking the lead and Tommi Makinen was able to go up to second place. The two men were fighting for the lead but Solberg got a broken suspension that caused his retirement.

Makinen was also a victim of the many stones along the roads. With his damaged Impreza, the Finn fell back from second to ninth place. At the end, Tommi finished in eighth position. The Subaru's potential is there... it will have to be confirmed in New Zealand next month.

The race's statistics

4th rally of Turkey

From February 26th to March 2nd 2003
Third event in the World Championship
18 special stagSS
1193,85 km, including 337,88 timed kilometers (28,30%)
60 registered - 58 at the start - 27 at the finish line

Overall Leader
Marcus Gronholm       Peugeot 206 WRC     -     SS 1
Petter Solberg        Subaru Impreza      -     SS 2 а 3
Harri Rovanpera       Peugeot 206 WRC     -     SS 4 а 9
Carlos Sainz          Citroen Xsara     -       SS 10 а 18