Luca Rossetti's Peugeot headed the eight Super 2000 cars which finished at the top of Istanbul Rally, the opening round of both the European championship and the IRC, leaving the Group N cars far behind. His Peugeot Italia team car finished 23.9 seconds in front of the Peugeot Kronos car of Nicolas Vouilloz, with whom he had a tight battle in the early stages before the French driver was delayed by a puncture in stage 5. This was only the fifth event rally on gravel in Rossetti's career, and this was his third win on the three IRC events he has entered so far! Rossetti's win was not trouble free. On the third stage of Day 2 he also had a puncture, but drove on without stopping for the remaining two kilometres of the stage. This allowed Vouilloz to reduce the Italian's accumulated lead substantially. Rossetti: "I never guessed we had a chance (to win) before the start of the event. I just tried to steer clear of the sharpest stones as much as possible, and I think that's how we managed to win".

Punctures played a major part, with Vouilloz's teammate Freddy Loix losing four minutes for this reason on stage 3 and Brice Tirabassi retiring when he suffered two. Top Turkish driver Volkan Isik also lost time in this way. Fiat's number one driver Anton Alen lost time on Day 1 with brake and engine troubles but pulled up on the final stage to pip teammate Renato Travaglia into third place when the Italian slid off the road and also punctured. Dani Sola' private Fiat Abarth from Spain finished the first leg in second place but punctured on Day 2 and fell back to finished sixth just behind Czech driver Jan Kopecky. This was the first event in a Peugeot for Kopecky, Skoda's resident test driver on their own Super 2000 project.

Reigning Italian champion Giandomenico Basso started number one on the road but rolled his car when lying third, and eventually withdrew after losing ten minutes. Behind the Super 2000 cars, two wheel drive Fiat Punto S1600 cars finished ninth and tenth, while the top Group N car was the Subaru Impreza N14 car of Bulgarian Krum Donchev, driving for the new Bulgarian Prista Oil Rally Team. The Mitsubishis of Luca Betti and Giovanni Manfrinato both retired after damage in a water crossing.

Round two of the European series is the rally version of the historic Mille Miglia in two weeks, run on asphalt stages. Originally it was expected that the Safari Rally in Kenya would open the 2008 IRC series but due to national unrest in East Africa, the Istanbul Rally was brought in as a substitute at a late date. The second IRC event is the gravel stage Rally of Portugal in five weeks' time.

3mmm
photo 1 Luca Rosetti winning in Turkey
photo 2 Nicolas Vouilloz is aiming at the 2008 title
photo 3 Anton Alen get third place in the last stage

Final classification Istanbul Rally 
1 Rossetti/Chiarcossi    Peugeot 207 S2000        2h24m48.3s 
2 Vouilloz/Klinger       Peugeot 207 S2000        2h25m11.2s 
3 Alen/Alanne            Fiat Grande Punto S2000  2h26m15.4s 
4 Travaglia/Granai       Fiat Grande Punto S2000  2h26m57.5s 
5 Kopecky/Stary          Peugeot 207 S2000        2h27m01.9s 
6 Sola/Sanchez           Fiat Grande Punto S2000  2h27m02.4s 
7 Isik/Ozsenler          Fiat Grande Punto S2000  2h29m35.1s 
8 Loix/Buysmans          Peugeot 207 S2000        2h29m35.8s