2008 Rally of Turkey
| 2008 Rally of Turkey 9th Rally of Turkey |
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Round 8 of the 2008 World Rally Championship
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| Host country |
 Turkey
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| Rally base | Antalya | ||
| Dates run | June 12 – 15 2008 | ||
| Stages | 19 (360.74 km; 224.15 mi) | ||
| Stage surface | Gravel | ||
| Overall distance | 1,263.74 km (785.25 mi) | ||
| Results | |||
| Overall winner |
 Mikko HirvonenBP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team |
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| Crews | 60 at start, 38 at finish | ||
The 9th Rally of Turkey, the 8th round of the 2008 World Rally Championship season took place between June 12–15, 2008. The event returned after a year sabbatical and was held in the south west of Turkey, with the rally headquarters and service park based in the seaside resort of Kemer. The special stages are held on gravel mountain roads to the south west of Antalya. The rally was won by Finland's Mikko Hirvonen, with Jari-Matti Latvala finishing second and Sébastien Loeb third. With this result Hirvonen took a three-point lead over Loeb in the drivers world championship going into the six-week summer break.
The event kicked off with a short superspecial stage on Thursday evening, which was won by Sébastien Loeb. On Friday - the first full day of the rally - he was due to run first and 'clean' the roads. This had a big impact on his performance (his stage times were up to 29 seconds quicker on the second pass through the stages) and meant that he would only win one stage on the day. Despite this he would still be leading the end of day one as the Ford drivers all took a tactical approach to the final stage of the day in order to secure a more advantageous road position for day two - a tactic criticised by the Citroën Total team boss Olivier Quesnel. Behind Loeb were the drivers for the BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team and the Stobart VK M-Sport team, with the last of the Ford quartet, fifth place man Mikko Hirvonen, a mere 6.2 seconds behind Loeb at the end of day one. Ahead of Hirvonen was Gigi Galli in fourth place. Galli won three stages, with his team mate Henning Solberg winning one stage and finishing the day in second place. The remaining Ford driver was Jari-Matti Latvala who ended the day in third place after an astonishing performance that saw him take two stage wins (one by a margin of 15 seconds) and pick up two punctures.
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