The first day of Rally Instanbul ended with the Ballica stage, a trail which will be used twice more tomorrow. Dani Sola proved fastest once again, completing the nearly 20 kilometres of this run in 10:10.3, a few seconds ahead of the Abarth Grande Puntos driven by Giandomenico Basso and Anton Alen.

With Luca Rossetti's Peugeot 207 Super 2000 attaining third place, the Italian prevented the Fiat cars from monopolising the top positions. He was followed by two more Grande Puntos, those of Renato Travaglia and Volkan Isik in positions five and six.

Beyond the 20-second mark, a trio of Peugeots came next with Jan Kopecky, Nicolas Vouilloz, and Freddy Loix at the controls. Mehmet Besler brought his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 into the final position of the top ten, 42.8 seconds down from the stage winner.

The conclusion of Rally Istanbul's first day shows Luca Rossetti as overall leader. The Italian driver lost a small portion of ground however as his lead was brought down to 37.2 seconds from 41.2 after the previous stage. However, Rossetti's closest contender has changed.

Dani Sola now occupies the second position of the general rankings after Nicolas Vouilloz dropped to third place, now 51.9 seconds away from the lead, thereby giving some weight to the rumours of engine trouble affecting his Peugeot.

In fourth place, Renato Travaglia is now only four seconds behind Vouilloz, while Anton Alen is 6.8 seconds away in fifth position overall.

The programme of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge's first round of the season will resume tomorrow morning with six more stages to contest.