Gronholm hopes to strike back
Marcus Gronholm hopes that he can still challenge Sebastien Loeb for Rally Italia victory despite falling 22 seconds behind his championship rival after breaking a damper near the end of leg one
The Finn passed Jari-Matti Latvala for the rally lead in SS4, but then struck a rock in the following stage and had to nurse his car through SS6 and back to service.
"I can't believe it because I was leading and now I'm more than 20 seconds behind," said Gronholm.
"I'll try to catch Loeb but it will be hard. It's a lot of time but there are two days remaining and anything is possible.
"It's sad because the car was working so well. The car was difficult to drive after the damper broke but luckily we made it back to service with no more problems."
Team boss Malcolm Wilson agreed that there was still time to mount a comeback.
"It's not over yet and we will come back and challenge tomorrow," Wilson said.
"Marcus had a big impact on the front left wheel and lost the fluid from the damper but I'm pleased that he got back to service and didn't lose as much time as we feared."
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