Peugeot denies Monte recurrence for Gronholm

Reigning World Champion Gronholm had blamed his exit from Sweden on the same water pump problem that occurred on the Monte, but Nandan denied this was the case.

"We think Marcus's problem was the cylinder head gasket," he said. "It was absolutely not the same problem as the Monte."

Speaking earlier to Autosport.com, a distraught Gronholm was of the belief that his retirement today (Friday) mirrored that of his first day exit from the opening round.

"For me it was exactly the same problem as the Monte," he said. "I was a little surprised when it started to do the same thing as the Monte. The water temperature went up, the windscreen misted over and that was it."

Gronholm has taken no points from two starts, but can take solace from the fact that his closest title rival from 2000, England's Richard Burns, has yet to score and is also effectively out of the Swedish event.