Anton Alén was the best finisher of the Abarth contingent in Turkey today, the Finn making the last step of the podium of the Istanbul Rally finishing and one place ahead of the similar machine of Renato Travaglia.

Anton Alén was the best finisher of the Abarth contingent in Turkey today, the Finn making the last step of the podium of the Istanbul Rally finishing and one place ahead of the similar machine of Renato Travaglia. Alen's Abarth factory team mate Giandomenico Basso dropped away from the leaderboard after a roll yesterday.

Instead it was Italian driver Luca Rossetti who maintained his 100 percent 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.

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 occurred 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 Alén 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 Alén, 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 seven-tenths 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.

2008 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, Rd 1 - Istanbul Rally, Result:

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 Alén (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

IRC championship standings after round one:

Drivers:

1 Rossetti 10
2 Vouilloz 8
3 Alen 6
4 Travaglia 5
5 Kopecky 4
6 Sola 3
7 Isik 2
8 Loix 1

Manufacturers:

1 Peugeot 18
2 Abarth 11