A ROCKY DEBUT; The inaugural Turkish rally was all about avoiding trouble.(News)

Byline: JEREMY HART

The old adage in motorsport is ``To finish first, first you have to finish.'' Visiting Turkey last weekend for the first time on the World Rally Championship, no one knew what to expect from the mountain stages above the eastern Mediterranean. What they got was rallying hell. It was even worse than the car-breaking Safari Rally that Turkey replaced.

``This is easily the roughest rally. In fact, compared to this, the Safari is easy,'' said Finland's Harri Rovanpera, who mastered the first day of the rally to open a commanding 30-second lead in his Peugeot.

However, the top-three on the first night-Rovanpera, eventual winner Carlos Sainz, and the Belgian Francois Duval-all achieved their positions thanks to running low down the start order, benefiting from the cars ahead sweeping the road clear of slippery gravel and monster rocks.

``I did not make one mistake today, but the road position definitely helped,'' said Peugeot's Rovanpera, who has gone two years since his last, and only, World Rally win.

The rocky conditions caught out a number of top drivers. Early leader Petter Solberg sunk from the rally when his Subaru rammed a rock. Ford's Markko Martin lost four gears and world champion Marcus Gronholm spent most of the first day driving without power steering. ``I want to be on the next plane to Helsinki but the team wants me to try for a manufacturers' point,'' he said.

Day one was a walk in the park compared to day two. Seven stages, 100 miles and thousands of suspension-crunching rocks. In particular, stages eight and 10 were killers.