FIA announces full 2003 WRC calendar.

The FIA - the governing body for the World Rally Championship, has finally released a complete calendar for 2003.

A first draft calendar was released at the beginning of October, and now the World Motor Sport Council, following a fax vote, has finalised the schedule and has thus confirmed dates for Turkey and Cyprus.

Turkey will host its first event from February 26th to March 2nd, while Cyprus moves from April to June.

Two events remain provisional, both the ADAC Rallye Deutschland and the Rally of Great Britain are included, but are "subject to the observers' reports on the 2002 events."

As was announced in October, there is no place for the Safari Rally, which "has been excluded from the 2003 Championship calendar because the necessary guarantees for the event had not been given [to the FIA]."

The rest of the calendar is largely the same, with the championship beginning with the Rallye Monte Carlo and finishing in Great Britain. Other minor changes see a few events moved around - eg. Rally New Zealand is now at the start of the year, the Tour de Corse moves to October, and Rally Australia is in September.

The full new-look 2003 schedule is below...

2003 FIA World Rally Championship calendar:

Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo 22-26 January##Uddeholm Swedish Rally 5-9 February#Rally of Turkey 26 Feb - 2 March##Propecia Rally New Zealand 9-13 April#Rally Argentina 7-11 May#Acropolis Rally [Greece] 4-8 June##Cyprus Rally 18-22 June#ADAC Rallye Deutschland* 23-27 July#Neste Rally Finland 6-10 August##Telstra Rally Australia 3-7 September#Rallye Sanremo - Rallye d'Italia 1-5 October##Tour de Corse - Rallye de France 15-19 October#Rallye Catalunya Costa Brava - Rallye de Espana 22-26 October##Rally of Great Britain* 5-9 November##

* Subject to the observers' reports

# FIA Production Car World Rally Championship round
## FIA Junior World Rally Championship round