Preview - Rally of Turkey.

This weekend the WRC heads to Turkey for another one of the more difficult events on the calendar, with Sebastien Loeb seeking to extend his lead in his quest to retain the title and a familiar face making his return to the WRC.

Turkey will also play host to the fourth round in the 2005 FIA Production Car WRC.

Beginning on Thursday 2 June with a ceremonial start in Antalya, the gruelling three-day rally is the second event in a trio of Mediterranean hot, gravel rallies, following on from Cyprus and with Greece to come in a matter of weeks.

Special notes:

Presenting crews with a series of twisty, rock-strewn tests run high in the Anatolian Mountains, the event's terrain should have a familiar feel. The challenging stages will be similar to those used in the previous event in Cyprus, while the event's twisty nature means it is one of the slowest rallies of the year.

The 2005 Rally of Turkey will once again be based around the town of Kemer, 40km south of the holiday resort of Antalya and like last season the event is likely to be hot and dry, with temperatures in excess of 30?C, providing drivers with an extra challenge to overcome.

FIA World Rally Championship news:

Sebastien Loeb continues to lead World Rally drivers' championship following his dominant win in Greece last time out. The Frenchman now has a lead of eleven points over Petter Solberg and Markko Martin who share second place.

In the constructors' championship, Peugeot are still the team to beat with a nine point lead over Citroen.

News from the Manufacturers' teams:

Citroen Total:

[Sebastien Loeb, car #1 and Carlos Sainz, car #2]

Three wins in a row has seen Sebastien Loeb build a handy lead at the top of the standings and he will head into this weekend hoping to extend his lead still further - although running first on the road on Friday could again prove to be a disadvantage.

"Serving as 'road sweeper' for all of 90 kilometres on Friday could be a handicap," he said. "But Petter [Solberg] will be running second on the road, so it's practically the same thing for him. Marcus [Gronholm] will start fifth, so he will be a little bit better off. Watch out for Carlos. He will be way down the order. Given the potential of the Xsara, if he feels comfortable, he could be dangerous!"

Carlos is indeed former World Champion Carlos Sainz who makes his return to the team for this event in place of the disappointing Francois Duval despite retiring from competition at the end of last season.

However the Spaniard is firmly focused on doing a good job for the team in what he insists will be a one-off appearance.

"If I commit to something, my commitment is always total," he said. "And being part of such a motivated team will be a big help. I hope that seven months away won't prevent me from finding a good pace. The Xsara is a comfortable car and that will help. But as I have said previously, my intention is to give it 100 per cent. I will be there to help the team and I will do my job as well as possible, both in and out of the car."

Ford Motor Company:

[Toni Gardemeister, car #3 and Roman Kresta, car #4.]

Ford has now scored points in 50 consecutive rallies and will be keen to extend that record this weekend in Turkey.

Toni Gardemeister and Roman Kresta have just one start on the event between them, a seventh place for Gardemeister back in 2003, so both drivers will lack experience of the tough stages.

However Gardemeister is confident that the reliability of the Focus makes a podium finish a realistic possibility.

"I think a podium finish is very realistic," he said. "We missed out on a podium place on each of the last two rallies through bad luck. But the performance of the Focus on those events gives me great motivation for both this rally and the next in Greece, which is another rough event."

555 Subaru World Rally Team:

[Petter Solberg, car #5 and Chris Atkinson, car #6.]

After failing to finish in Cyprus last time out, Petter Solberg will be keen to fight for victory to prevent Loeb breaking away in the race for the title.

The 2003 champion admits he needs luck to be on his side as he attempts to cut the eleven point gap currently held by Loeb in the championship standings.

"We need some luck now and for things to work out well for us," he said. "We didn't have such a good event in Cyprus, but Turkey is a rally that I like a lot. We had some problems there last year and were unlucky with the watersplash, but now I'm ready to fight back. It will be a tough event, but the team has been working really hard with the car since Cyprus. Now I'm ready to get back behind the wheel and start the event."

Like the last event in Cyprus, Atkinson has not contested the event before and will be aiming to gain experience of the rally's difficult stages, while demonstrating a good pace in his Impreza.

Marlboro Peugeot Total:

[Marcus Gronholm, car #7 and Markko Martin, car #8].

Marcus Gronholm could have won in Turkey last season had it not been for a bizarre incident which saw a metal rod pierce the floor of his 307 WRC. As a result it is little surprise that Marcus views the Rally of Turkey as one of the tougher events on the calendar.

"It's not my favourite type of rally," he said. "But the organisers did a really good job last year in producing a smoother route than Cyprus. I was pretty unlucky last year too, so let's hope it will be different this time round. I know it will be very difficult but we will see..."

Team-mate Martin currently sits second in the championship chase, equal on points with Solberg and is keen to increase his tally this weekend.

"My priority will be to reach the finish to score as many points as possible," he said. "I know I will be able to count on the reliability of the 307 WRC and I really want to help my team fight for the manufacturers' title."

Mitsubishi Motor Sports:

[Harri Rovanpera, car #9 and Gigi Galli, car #10]

Gigi Galli returns in place of Gilles Panizzi in the second Mitsubishi this weekend with Harri Rovanpera continuing to lead the Japanese manufacturers assault.

After a promising display in Cyprus Mitsubishi president, Isao Torii is hopeful the team can continue to improve and fight for more points.

"I think we have a strong team for this rally," he said. "We went into Cyprus with the goal of achieving a top five placing and with both cars in the points in the Manufacturers' Championship. We achieved that on an extremely tough and demanding event. For Turkey, I would like to see us reach the end of the rally without major technical problems to give the drivers the opportunity to show their true speed. We will then naturally get a good result with both crews I believe, and scoring manufacturer points to get closer to our rivals continues to be our goal."

Skoda Motorsport:

[Armin Schwarz, car #11 and Janne Tuohino, car #12]

Like Cyprus, the Fabia WRC will be making its first appearance in Turkey this weekend, but both Schwarz and Tuohino are looking forward to the event.

Extra testing ahead of the event has team boss Martin Muehlmeier in an upbeat mood and he hopes that the Czech team will come away from the weekend with more points to add to its current tally.

"Turkey is a new event for us but it is another hot and rough gravel event which we are becoming accustomed to at this part of the season," he said. "We have carried out some extra testing before the event and I hope that we will see further improvements in our performance. We are starting to score some points and we must try to continue that over the coming events."

Production Car WRC:

A bumper field of Production Car World Rally Championship crews are expected to compete in Turkey this weekend.

Amongst the front runners will undoubtedly be Toshi Arai, who currently leads the championship, along with Xavier Pons, Karamjit Singh and Gabriel Pozzo. Britain will be represented in the class by Mark Higgins and Natalie Barratt.

Other significant entries:

Amongst the other significant runners are: Henning Solberg (Ford Focus), Antony Warmbold (Ford Focus), Daniel Carlsson (Peugeot 206), Serkan Vazici (Hyundai Accent WRC), Aris Vovos (Subaru Impreza WRC) and Tabias Johansson (Subaru Impreza WRC)

Suzuki meanwhile continue there 'world tour' with the Ignis Super 1600 - junior runners, Per-Gunnar Andersson and Guy Wilks in action, while Brit David Higgins joins his brother in the field at the wheel of an Opel Corsa.

Schedule:

After a ceremonial start in Antalya on Thursday, the event heads into the mountains near Kremer for three days of competitive action.

The opening leg sees the teams covering 148.14km of competitive action over eight special stages before the teams tackle the longest day of the event on Saturday.

Sunday then sees just two stages on the run to the finish, although the final stage is the longest of the event at 33.35km.

Hot tip:

Loeb and Solberg to fight for victory while King Carlos shows seven months away hasn't seen him lose any of his speed.

Last year:

Sebastien Loeb won the event last year - nearly half a minute clear of Marcus Gronholm - with Solberg completing the podium. There were also points for Sainz, Duval, Hirvonen, Tuohino and Warmbold, while Gilles Panizzi and Harri Rovanpera were the only two main retirements.