Gronholm disqualified, Burns wins

Hardly had Marcus Gronholm begun to celebrate his win (handed to him once Tommi Makinen had rolled big style out of the event on the penultimate stage) than the event stewards called Peugeot's team management to a meeting. In short order Gronholm was excluded for having mechanics tell him how to restart his troublesome car and Richard Burns was gifted his first win for the team.

Gronholm had tried to deflect the attention of the media by saying: "What happened this morning was the car wouldn't start. I was trying everything. It kept on stopping on the road section. The protest is just Subaru bull."

He was wrong, however, as there was no protest from Subaru. An event official had been on the spot (not surprising just 10 metres outside parc ferme!) and that's who blew the whistle.

Ironically, had the mechanics telephoned Gronholm with instructions they would have got away with it! Instead, by being face to face within the 1km exclusion zone then they had clearly broken the rules. The team management accepted the decision and, sportingly it has to be said, declined to appeal.

This won't have been how Burns wanted to record his first win in Peugeot colours and, while he clearly opted for a watching brief over today's final four stages (letting Makinen and Gronholm fight each other and risk disaster), he can't celebrate victory as readily as he should.

However, Peugeot's slip up has been a big boost to the championship. A fifth big win for Peugeot would have killed the series stone dead and left the unwelcome prospect of the titles being decided long before the end of the season.

Ford's Markko Martin and Skoda's Toni Gardemeister picked up their first points of the season so it was a worthwhile trip for these two.
Gabriel Pozzo only had to drive down the road from his Cordoba home to start his first event as a full works driver and while it took Gronholm's exclusion to get him into the top 10, the local boy done pretty good!

The championship now heads for Greece and the scene of another Colin McRae victory from 2001. After his performance in Cyprus, the Ford ace can reasonably expect to be at the front of the pack on the championship's second hot gravel rally. However, Cyprus also served as a warning that even the strongest performance can be (literally!) overturned in an instant.

But so far this year the formbook has been turned upside down. The growing strength of Peugeot means that Marcus Gronholm can never be discounted and the Tommi Makinen/Petter Solberg partnership at Subaru must also be among the possible winners.

And what of Citroen? The often controversial French team returns to the fray after a three-round absence. The Xsara WRC has no rough road form to guide us but it seems unlikely that the team's drivers will trouble the series regulars on a consistent basis. Then again, Citroen has been working hard on its rough road specification and so surprises may be in store...