McRae And Sainz Whet Appetite For Turkish Delight
Published: 2nd March 2003
The first day on the gravel of this new WRC event has seen Colin McRae’s Citroen Xsara WRC finish only one minute off the pace of leader Harri Rovanpera. Despite being second and then first on the road for Special Stages 4 to 6, thus feeling the full force of the Turkish terrain, McRae made better progress than anticipated.
“It’s a difficult event”, he said, “very, very rough in parts and I believe these rough conditions do play a part. However, we estimated that we’d lose more time than we actually did and it should be a lot better tomorrow”.
Carlos Sainz kept his Citroen Xsara WRC in the top 10 of every stage, with his best performance in Special Stage 6 when he was third, just 1.8 seconds behind the stage and rally leader. He is separated from Rovanpera in the top spot by a mere 20 seconds.
Sadly, Sebastian Loeb and Daniel Elena retired from the Rally of Turkey after Special Stage 3.
