uutinen eiliseltä:
Gronholm shocked to be leading
Marcus Gronholm - FordDouble champion Marcus Gronholm has said he's absolutely stunned to be leading the way in this weekend's season-opening Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo - especially as it's his first event in a works Ford and he's hating the icy conditions on the stages.
The Finn, who has moved to Ford this year after seven years with the works Peugeot squad, only won two stages on today's opening leg, but a series of consistent times left him ideally placed to capitalise when rally leader and reigning double champion Sebastien Loeb crashed his Citroen Xsara WRC on the final test of the loop.
"The conditions are awful - I hate them," said Gronholm shortly after passing Loeb's crashed car. "I have been driving like my grandmother. Still it's the first time out with Ford and I'm leading the Monte Carlo Rally - that's not so bad. But, I have to admit that my driving has been terrible."
Gronholm's Ford team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen is faring less well down in ninth place overall. The Finn suffered with incorrect tyre choice on this morning's opening loop of stages, losing almost three minutes to the leaders, but was able to claw back up the order on SS4 and SS5 before suffering handbrake and transmission problems on the final test which cost him another one-and-a-half minutes.
"I've had lots of problems," Hirvonen said. "There's something wrong with the centre differential and the handbrake, and I had to shunt backwards and forwards to get round all the hairpins.
lähde: wrc.com