Gronholm gets caught out
Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm has revealed that a low ride height was to blame for the accident that forced him out of this weekend's Telstra Rally Australia while running in the lead
The Finn had an overnight lead of 21.4s over Citroen's Sebastien Loeb after five stage wins on the event. But the Peugeot driver was caught out early in the first test of leg two bringing to an end any hopes of scoring his second win of the season for the French manufacturer.
"Everything was going okay until a left-hand corner about three kilometres into the stage," Gronholm said. "We came into it with normal speed, but the ruts were much deeper than they had been yesterday and the car started to slide on the sump guard. This put us into a spin and we hit the front and back of the car against a tree.
"I tried to start the engine, but there was something rubbing against the alternator belt so the engine wouldn't restart. Finally we managed to get it going again, but it was too late. It was a real pity as the speed and the reliability of the car has been perfect. We just needed a bit more ride height to get through that corner."
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