Gronholm fears for title chances

The Finn failed to score in Rally Argentina, while his main title rival Sebastien Loeb took his fourth win from six starts and now holds a 21-point championship lead.

Gronholm was leading in Rally Argentina, before he was sidelined in the first leg with a problem with the centre differential on his Ford Focus WRC 06.

Gronholm, who won the title in 2000 and 2002, returned to action under Superrally regulations and concentrated on testing his Focus through Saturday and Sunday. He ended in 10th position.

This season, Gronholm has retired twice after technical problems and rolled out of the lead in Mexico.

"The championship will be very difficult now," he said. "We needed to win this one. You can't afford to give Loeb any chances. It's so incredible the way he can carry on the way he does. He just doesn't seem to have any problems and if he goes off the road, he just comes straight back on.

"What can we do? The speed of the car is there and I know we can win more rallies. But what happens is the championship is out of my hands."

Ford team principal Malcolm Wilson said he understood Gronholm's frustrations, but that his aims for this season hadn't changed.

"We said from the outset that we weren't thinking about titles this year," said Wilson. "But we raised expectations with the start and the wins in Monte Carlo and Sweden. We know what we've got to do, we've got a lot of testing planned - we won't be giving up."

The team is continuing their intensive test programme in Sardinia this week.