Cetinkaya ready for Sardinia IRC start

Burcu Cetinkaya says her outing on Rally of Turkey last weekend was the ideal preparation for her Intercontinental Rally Challenge campaign, which gets underway on Rally d’Italia Sardegna from June 4-6.

Cetinkaya used the world championship rally to acclimatise to the Peugeot 207 Super 2000 she will drive this season, finishing 12th overall on the demanding gravel event.

She said: “It was good experience and I’m pleased with my result, even though I was not interested where I finished because I was using the rally just to practice. I improved a lot my use of the gearbox and the braking. It was only my third rally in a four-wheel drive car so I am quite pleased.”

The 29-year-old from Istanbul is due to contest seven rounds of the IRC alongside co-driver Cicek Guney. She is the first female driver to enter an expanded programme of IRC events.