Gronholm leads after first Acropolis stage

when Finland's Marcus Gronholm won the opening stage of the Acropolis Rally.The new 206WRC has now led both its first two events.

Massive crowds jammed the roads east of Athens to watch the dustbowl action
but the results on the short superstage, where cars competed two at a time,
will probably bear no relation to the competitors' relative performance over
the next three days.

The Acropolis Rally, one of the oldest in the world series, takes place over
the roughest roads in Europe and offers as stern a test of man and machine
as the Safari Rally, won by Colin McRae's Ford Focus earlier this year.

McRae knows his car is up to the challenge and lay fifth overnight with
fellow Brit Richard Burns eighth in his Subaru.

One of the hardest tasks on the event is competing without four-wheel
drive. McRae's younger brother, Alister, is doing just that with his
front-wheel drive Hyundai Coupe but after the opening stage he heads the
important Formula 2 category by two seconds from experienced team mate
Kenneth Eriksson.