Gronholm strolls to victory

It had been just as straightforward in Cyprus earlier in the year and Gronholm thought he had won, but he was later controversially disqualified. The 307 has been as fast as anything in the WRC since its introduction, but poor luck and reliability issues have conspired against it until now.

Gronholm drove within himself throughout today's final leg in the knowledge that he had a 40s lead over his nearest challenger Markko Martin in the factory Ford Focus. Initially the Finn pushed hard enough to finish second on SS19 and SS20, with only the showboating Subarus quicker (competing for stage times but not points under the new SupeRally rules). But after the service break, Gronholm simply backed right off to insure against further misfortune.

"We've waited a long time for this," he said. "This is certainly a victory that we've had to work for, but that makes it all the more worthwhile. I wasn't completely confident when we started the rally, but my feeling got better and we were able to keep the lead without pushing too hard."

Martin, still recovering from the effects of his massive accident in Argentina, found himself in second place overall yesterday, after Gronholm's cousin Sebastien Lindholm rolled his factory Peugeot out of the event. But early this morning the Estonian virtually conceded the rally to Gronholm after closing to within half a minute by the end of yesterday. The Ford star admitted he was driving for points and making sure he was in a position to take advantage of any slip-up from the leader. One never came.

"I am really happy with second," said Martin. "This has been a really hard weekend. My body wasn't able to keep up with what my head was telling me to do. I really didn't expect it to be so difficult to drive but we've finished second and scored eight points so that is a good result."

Rally Argentina winner Carlos Sainz had another strong rally in Finland. The Spaniard was the first non-Scandinavian to win the event 14 years ago, and although he didn't have the pace of Gronholm this weekend, he had enough to beat his world championship leading Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb to third place. Loeb, who freely admits that Finland is one of his weaker events, came home a safe fourth. All in all it was an impressive comeback from Citroen, after the team struggled for pace on the first leg and tumbled down the order.

The Frenchman's safe points finish means that he has extended his championship lead over Solberg to 22 points. Gronholm is now third equal in the points chase with Martin.

Works guest stars Janne Tuohino (Ford) and Jani Paasonen (Skoda) both put in tremendous performances in fifth and sixth. Particularly Paasonen who dragged the Fabia into the points on the first day and stayed there for the rest of the rally. Francois Duval took seventh after overtaking Toni Gardemeister in the second factory Skoda on the penultimate stage.