Martin hits rock, loses lead
Markko Martin has lost the lead of the Swedish Rally, and his chances of becoming the first non-Scandinavian to win the event, after dropping nearly six minutes when he damaged the rear suspension of Ford Focus WRC 03 on SS11. Frenchman Sebastien Loeb has now inherited the lead of the event
AUTOSPORT columnist Martin had a comfortable lead in the event over Citreon driver Loeb, but it all came undone on SS11, when he dropped a massive 5m53.9s after going off the road early in the stage. Martin has now dropped to ninth overall.
When Martin arrived back in the service park, his left-rear suspension had virtually collapsed, with the broken wheel dragging along the ground at a sharp angle.
"Your luck changes, doesn't it?" mused Ford team boss Malcolm Wilson. "When it does, it goes badly wrong. I don't know what happened. It was very slippery on the stages, and it looks like he got caught out. He knocked a wheel off the car, but if he can get it back to service we can repair it and I'm confident he can get back in the points.
"It was looking really good. It's a big disappointment for the whole team, as you can imagine."
Martin's misfortune has handed Citroen star Loeb the lead, although he is being slowly caught by three-time event winner Marcus Gronholm. The gap between the two now stands at 26.2s.
Martin's misfortune has promoted Ford privateer Janne Tuohino into an impressive third overall.
We'll have a full round-up of the afternoon's action later today on autosport.com.
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