Burcu Cetinkaya and co-driver Cicek Guney inherit FSTi win in Turkey.

Burcu Cetinkaya and co-driver Cicek Guney took the glory in the Fiesta SportingTrophy International series in Turkey last weekend and in the process created history by becoming the first all-female crew to win a round of the championship.

Cetinkaya and Guney had been running second to their Castrol Ford Team Turkiye team-mates Emre Yurdakul and Can Erkal until the very final stage, when a puncture allowed them in front and handed them the maximum ten points.

That result, in combination with the runners-up spot secured in Sardinia last month, lifts Cetinkaya into the series lead - 8 points up on Vytautas Baranauskas, who failed to finish, having retired in the penultimate stage with a driveshaft failure.

"It feels very, very good to win my first Fiesta SportingTrophy round and even better to be leading the championship," said Cetinkaya, who along with Guney also created history by becoming the first all-female crew to score a stage win on the 9.9 kilometre Kumluca 2 test, which was followed up by three more on day 2 and one more on the event's final leg.

"With Baranauskas out of the game early and once I saw the difference to my team-mate Emre [Yurdakul] after the first day, I just drove sensibly to hold my position and not make any mistakes.

"It was, however, important to stay close to him in case he made a mistake or something happened and, okay I am sad for my team-mate because he was doing well, but this is how rally is sometimes."

Emre Yurdakul, who had led for every stage, was philosophical about losing the victory right at the end and eventually finishing 31 seconds adrift.

"It is very disappointing for me to be leading the rally for every stage and then have this puncture on the final stage and drop to second, but this is the way it goes sometimes," said the 25-year-old.

"Obviously I would have loved to win here on my home event but I am still very happy to take eight points and now we are up to third in the championship. I will be trying hard in Finland to challenge Burcu [Cetinkaya] and Vytautas [Baranauskas] especially after the speed we were able to go at here in Turkey."

In total only two of the six FSTi runners finished - and in addition to Baranauskas, new comer Joachim Müller-Wende also went out, with front left suspension damage on the last stage, while the event also claimed Denis Grodetskiy (power steering problems) and Koray Muratoðlu (who crashed out on day 2).

The Fiesta SportingTrophy International series now continues in August with the Rally Finland.