Mirco Baldacci was third, albeit more than 2 minutes further back in his Lancer Evo IX. The San Marino man had led on day 1, until a broken front suspension arm through SS6 and SS7 saw him lose over a minute. With others also hitting problems though he fought his way back and three stages win in succession on Saturday put him back on the podium.
"I'm happy but sorry for yesterday as we had lots of problems with the suspension, although it was good that we were still fast enough to win some stages, but a podium finish is good," he noted, "and we still have three rallies left so we'll see."
Further down the order Martin Rauam was fourth and despite no previous experience in Turkey and a number of problems on all three days, he took his best points' haul of the season.
Armindo Araujo rounded out the top five, with Evgeniy Vertunov sixth and the top Group N Impreza runner at the finish. The Russian had been looking good to take fourth until he rolled on the last corner of the final stage and lost two places.
Simone Campedelli was seventh, winning all the stages on final day, while Giorgio Bacco had a steady drive and took the final point, his first of the season.
Gianluca Linari and Nasser Al-Attiyah completed the top ten, the latter once again dogged by bad luck and forced out day 1 with a broken fuse in his ECU. Bernardo Sousa and Riccardo Errani were the only other two classified finishers, the former opting to sit out Saturday's action following an accident in SS10, which left a spectator injured [see separate stories].
In total nine PWRC runners failed to finish, including two-time Production champion Toshi Arai as well as the likes of Uwe Nittel and Martin Prokop. The latter was actually excluded for a service infringement.
Gabor Mayer did not start again due to ill health - he has been suspended from future participation until he can submit all the necessary medical documentation to the
FIA medical delegate.
