Gronholm sets early pace
Marcus Gronholm was quickest in the first stage of the Acropolis Rally, the 2.25km Lilea Superspecial, setting a time of 1m53.1s in his Peugeot 307 WRC. As good as his word, the Finn bounced back from disqualification from the Cyprus Rally, and was immediately bang on the pace
The Cyprus Rally should have marked the French comapany's return to glory, and the first triumph for the new 307 after the event was dominated by Gronholm, but an illegal water pump rendered him excluded from the results (click on link below).
"All I can do now is forget about Cyprus and get on with Greece," said Gronholm. "I want to win here, I want to show that this car is ready to win. It was good to get the feeling back, that feeling when you win, but it wasn't so nice when we found there might be a problem."
Gronholm holds a slender 0.2s lead over world champion Petter Solberg in the Subaru heading into tomorrow's first leg, which begins with the 11.84km Rengini stage. The pair were more than a second quicker than third-placed Carlos Sainz in the factory Citroen Xsara.
Privateer Manfred Stohl was an impressive fourth quickest in his Peugeot 206 ahead of Ford's championship protagonist Markko Martin. Skoda's Armin Schwarz was seventh quickest ahead of Francois Duval, whose Ford Focus was quickest in the shakedown earlier today.
Gilles Panizzi was the fastest Mitsubishi Lancer driver in 11th ahead of Harri Rovanpera in the second works Peugeot and eventual Cyprus Rally winner Sebastien Loeb, three seconds adrift in 13th place.
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