Rally Turkey (15-18 April 2010) – Day 1
The C4 WRCs dominated the first day of Rally Turkey, a positive start for the Citroën Total WorldRally Team. Dani Sordo and Marc Marti, who are lying second behind Sébastien Ogier and JulienIngrassia, drove a steady intelligent race. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena who were slightlyhandicapped by being first out on the road, are currently in fifth place with two more days to closethe gap to the front-runners.
The official start of the rally was given on Thursday in the late afternoon in the heart of Istanbul. Aftercrossing the starting podium with the Blue Mosque in the background, the WRCs then went to the Asiancontinent to spend the night in the Pendik service park. This morning, the crews set off in blazingsunlight for the stages. The first day was the shortest of the rally with less than 100 timed kilometres.The route consisted of two runs through a loop of four stages followed by a super-special laid out inKadiköy.
Sébastien Loeb was the first out on the road and set a searing pace finishing the first loop 7.8s behindthe leader. “It’s difficult to estimate how much of a role sweeping played in the gap between us andSébastien Ogier, but I’m happy to be under ten seconds behind. We’ll continue pushing hard thisafternoon.”
Sordo in second place was also very pleased with his start to the rally. “What makes me very happy isthat I’m very much at home in the car. The stages are great, very fast and a bit less tough than weexpected. I think everybody was very quick this morning, even if we can go faster on the stages as we getto know them in the race.”
Dani kept up the same pace and held on to second place in the second loop. He also set the quickesttime in Bozgoca 2 (SS7). Before the super-special, he was under three seconds behind Sébastien Ogier:“I said above all that I wanted to enjoy myself behind the wheel in this rally. For the moment, that’s whatI’m doing. The conditions were similar to those of this morning and we had a good run. Everything’sgone well today. I’m very happy with my second place. Like all my rivals I’m a bit apprehensive abouttomorrow’s loop, especially, the long Riva stage, which will be very hard on the cars.”
Loeb was still fifth at the end of SS8, some 23.5s behind Ogier despite pushing all the time. The six-timeworld champion tried to analyse the situation. ”I lost more time than on the first loop, and I can’t saywhether that’s down to me or the fine layer of dust that we had to sweep off for our pursuers. In any case,I couldn’t go any quicker. We’ll have a good starting position for the second day, but victory is still a longway off! For example, we have forty kilometres of stages on asphalt on which it’s better to be first on theroad. I’m still optimistic about my chances of winning, and I’ll push like crazy tomorrow.”
THE RALLY IN FIGURESBest times in the stages
JDay 1 – SS1: Petter Solberg (Citroën C4) – SS2: Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus) – SS3: Sébastien Ogier(Citroën C4) – SS4: Solberg – SS5 and 6: Ogier – SS7: Sordo – SS8: Solberg – SS9: LoebBest performers: Solberg and Ogier, 3 quickest times each, Sordo, Hirvonen,Loeb 1 quickest timeeach..Leaders: SS1: Solberg – SS2 : Hirvonen – SS3 to 9 : Ogier
Classification at the end of the first day1. Ogier / Ingrassia Citroën C4 58m 36.4s2. Sordo / Marti Citroën C4 +2.8s3. Hirvonen / Lehtinen Ford Focus +9.2s4. P. Solberg / Mills Citroën C4 +18.3s
SS1 : Darlik 1 (15,66 km) 3rd +0’’5 3rd +0’’5 4th +0’’7 4th +0’’7SS2 : Karabeyli 1 (8,23 km) 5th +4’’9 5th +3’’9 3rd +3’’5 3rd +2’’7SS3 : Bozgoca 1 (13,52 km) 5th +6’’2 4th +6’’5 2nd +2’’0 3rd +1‘’1SS4 : Halli 1 (9,60 km) 4th +1’’7 5th +7’’8 3rd +1’’4 2nd +2’’1SS5 : Darlik 2 (15,66 km) 5th +4’’1 4th +11’’9 2nd +0’’9 2nd +3’’0SS6 : Karabeyli 2 (8,23 km) 6th +6’’2 5th +18’’1 3rd +2’’0 2nd +5’’0SS7 : Bozgoca 2 (13,52 km) 6th +7’’5 6th +23’’5 1st 2nd +2’’9SS8 : Halli 2 (9,60 km) 5th +2’’4 5th +25’’3 3rd +0’’5 2nd +2’’8SS9 : Istanbul (2,20 km) 1st 5th + 24”9 6th + 3”1 2nd +5”55. Loeb / Elena Citroën C4 +25.3s6. Latvala / Anttila Ford Focus +26.1s7. Villagra / Diaz Ford Focus +1m 33.8s8. Räikkönen / Lindström Citroën C4 +1m 48.0s9. Wilson / Martin Ford Focus +1m 57.6s10. Tanak / Sikk Mitsubishi Lancer +4m 45.9s
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