Gronholm upbeat about title hopes

Loeb was 36 seconds ahead of Gronholm when he crashed out of the Rally Italia on Sunday morning, handing victory to his championship rival, who consequently established a seven point lead in the standings.

"It's very good to be in front by seven points, but everything is still open," said Gronholm.

"But it's good and the next rally is Greece which we won last time. Then it's Finland and we will have a little bit of a more updated car.

"The future looks very, very good, but no, it's not a turning point yet. There are lots of rallies to come and it's still a long way to go."

Gronholm briefly led the rally on day one before a broken damper and then a lost wheel allowed Loeb to make a break. The Finn reckons that he would have been a match for Loeb all weekend without these issues.

"I think it's easy to calculate that without our problems we would have been equal with Sebastien," Gronholm said. "This time we had the feeling and the car was good, so it would have been a really hard fight."

Ford boss Malcolm Wilson pledged that the team would keep pushing to extend their championship advantage.

"We are in a much better position this year than we were this time last year, but it's like Marcus and the guys said, we haven't got a big enough advantage to say it's in the bag, in any way shape or form," Wilson said.

"It's more important for us as a team to keep focused and keep developing the car. We as a team can't come off the throttle pedal, and we as a team have to give these guys the best possible chance. I mean, we are not even half way through the season yet."

Gronholm's co-driver Timo Rautiainen said that the duo would still aim to finish first or second in all the remaining rallies.

"It's always better to take full points or we have to settle for next best and take second, otherwise it's too hard," he said.

"Now we have a seven-point buffer and it is very good of course, but when you know what kind of man there is behind you, I would not say that I'm relieved."