Peugeot Italia driver Luca Rossetti has maintained his 100% success rate in the IRC by taking three victories from three participations in the series. Rossetti, who won in Ypres and Sanremo last year, now adds the Istanbul Rally to his list of victories. Although it was only his fifth gravel rally, he claimed the lead from SS5 in the middle of the opening day and held onto it all the way to the finish, controlling his advantage to end up 22.9s seconds ahead of Peugeot Belgium’s Nicolas Vouilloz.

Rossetti is competing on only his fifth gravel rally, but he made consistent progress all day to avoid the punctures that plagued many of the competitors over the course of the stages. Conditions were particularly difficult during the second run through the stages in the afternoon, with some stones being pulled out of the road surfaces. One of the first people to lose time was Peugeot’s Freddy Loix, who picked up a puncture on SS3. He stopped to change the wheel and rejoined just in front of Dani Sola, who lost about 30 seconds in the Belgian’s dust.

Nonetheless, Sola grew in confidence throughout the day as he became more familiar with his Procar-run Abarth Grande Punto. On the final stage, a fastest time meant that he claimed second place from Peugeot driver Nicolas Vouilloz.
Vouilloz – last year’s winner in Turkey – had been a contender for the lead throughout the day, but he too lost time with a puncture during the second loop of stages. This time, the Peugeot driver was able to continue without having to change the wheel – but he was unable to maintain his challenge for the lead. The Frenchman’s worries were compounded during the final two stages of the day, when he felt an intermittent loss of power from his 207’s
engine.

Former European Champion Renato Travaglia was Rossetti’s closest challenger after Vouilloz dropped back, but he had problems of his own on the final stage following a heavy landing after a jump. He ended the day in fourth place, only six seconds ahead of the factory Abarth Grande Punto of Anton Alen. The young Finn, who led much of last year’s Rally Turkey before encountering some brake problems, felt that he had a slight engine issue and so was unable to mount an attack for the lead. Alen was still more fortunate than his team mate Giandomenico Basso, who tripped over a rock on SS4 and rolled heavily. The Italian was able to continue, but 10 minutes had gone and there was a lot of work in store for the mechanics at the service park. However, it is unlikely that he will re-start tomorrow in view of the time lost.

At least Basso remains in the rally – unlike Brice Tirabassi, whose BSA-run Peugeot 207 S2000 was forced into retirement on the final loop of stages with a double puncture. He is expected to re-start tomorrow. Luca Betti was also out on the final loop of stages, breaking the radiator of his Mitsubishi Lancer just after the biggest watersplash in the rally. The similar Mitsubishi of Giovanni Manfrinato was also a victim of the same watersplash, with water getting into the engine and stopping him in his tracks. The two-wheel drive section of the rally, valid for the IRC 2WD Cup, is currently led by local driver Yagiz Avci, at the wheel of a Fiat Punto S1600.

Results after leg one
1 Luca Rossetti (I)/Matteo Chiarcossi (I) Peugeot 207 S2000 1h25m17.5s
2 Dani Sola (E)/Oscar Sanchez (E) Abarth Grande Punto +37.2s
3 Nicolas Vouilloz (F)/Nicolas Klinger (F) Peugeot 207 S2000 +51.9s
4 Renato Travaglia (I)/Lorenzo Granai (I) Abarth Grande Punto +55.9s
5 Anton Alen (FIN)/Timo Alanne (FIN) Abarth Grande Punto +1m02.7s
6 Jan Kopecky (CZ)/Petr Stary (CZ) Peugeot 207 S2000 +1m24.3s
7 VoIkan Isik (TR)/Kaan Ozsenler (TR) Abarth Grande Punto +3m52.4s
8 Mehmet Besler (TR)/Erkan Guleren Mitsubishi Lancer +3m55.6s
9 Freddy Loix (B)/Robin Buysmans (B) Peugeot 207 S2000 +4m49.4s
10 Yagiz Avci (TR)/Ersan Alkir (TR) Fiat Punto S1600 + 5m48.6s

The weather for the second and final day of the Istanbul Rally took a turn for the worse, with the threatened rain finally making an appearance in the afternoon. As conditions worsened, the road surfaces degraded and became even more challenging. The day did not go entirely to plan for Rossetti, who picked up a puncture on SS12. However, the incident occured just two kilometres from the end of the stage – meaning that the Italian did not lose much time.

This also enabled Vouilloz to close to within 30 seconds of him. The Frenchman was in contention for the lead throughout the first half of the opening day; however a puncture during the second loop of stages on Saturday meant that he dropped back from the lead battle. He pushed hard on Sunday, but could not quite close the gap to the leader. Anton Alen however claimed the final podium place in his Abarth on the very last stage, when his key rival Renato Travaglia – also driving an Abarth, run by Grifone – dropped more than a minute after going off the road and collecting a puncture. The Finn, whose father is the legendary Markku Alen, did not have a good feeling with his car throughout the event but pushed hard over the final day to claim his podium place.

Jan Kopecky was fifth after a sensible drive at the wheel of his newly-acquired Peugeot 207 S2000, keeping out of the trouble that affected many of his rivals. Nonetheless the Czech driver had a tense final stage, ending the rally just half a second ahead of promising young Spaniard Dani Sola. The Abarth driver, run by Procar, actually started the day in second overall, some 45 seconds behind Rossetti. But a puncture on the opening stage of day two dropped him 50 seconds to sixth place – where he was to remain until the end of the rally.

Two early victims of punctures were local hero Volkan Isik (Abarth) and Freddy Loix (Peugeot) – who both had to stop and change a wheel on SS3 and never recovered from the time lost. They finished the rally seventh and eighth respectively – separated by just seventenths of a second!

There was an equally tight battle for the two-wheel drive section of the rally, valid for the IRC 2WD Cup, which was only settled on the final stage of the event. Former Junior World Championship competitor Fatih Kara headed into the last stage with a three-second advantage, but Yagiz Avci went 12 seconds faster at the wheel of a similar Fiat Punto S1600 to claim the class win and ninth place overall.

The retirements included Giandomenico Basso (Abarth), who did not re-start today following a heavy roll yesterday afternoon and Luca Betti (Mitsubishi) who broke the radiator of his Lancer at one of the watersplashes yesterday. Brice Tirabassi (Peugeot) also retired after accumulating two punctures on Saturday afternoon when he had only one spare wheel.

Results: Istanbul Rally
1 Luca Rossetti (I)/Matteo Chiarcossi (I) Peugeot 207 S2000 2h24m48.3s
2 Nicolas Vouilloz (F)/Nicolas Klinger (F) Peugeot 207 S2000 +22.9s
3 Anton Alen (FIN)/Timo Alanne (FIN) Abarth Grande Punto +1m27.1s
4 Renato Travaglia (I)/Lorenzo Granai (I) Abarth Grande Punto +2m09.2s
5 Jan Kopecky (CZ)/Petr Stary (CZ) Peugeot 207 S2000 +2m13.6s
6 Dani Sola (E)/Oscar Sanchez (E) Abarth Grande Punto +2m14.1s
7 VoIkan Isik (TR)/Kaan Ozsenler (TR) Abarth Grande Punto +4m46.8s
8 Freddy Loix (B)/Robin Buysmans (B) Peugeot 207 S2000 +4m47.5s
9 Yagiz Avci (TR)/Ersan Alkir (TR) Fiat Punto S1600 +10m28.9s
10 Fatih Kara (TR)/Bilge Ayan (TR) Fiat Punto S1600 +10m38.4s

Championship standings after round one:
1 Rossetti 10         1 Peugeot 18
2 Vouilloz 8          2 Abarth
3 Alen 6
4 Travaglia 5
5 Kopecky 4
6 Sola 3
7 Isik 2
8 Loix 1