Pirelli Trio Dominate Shakedown

Gronholm finished the 1.8-kmm stage, the shortest shakedown of the season, with a time of 1:15.6, more than two seconds faster than World Champion Sebastien Loeb.

Pirelli have brought a new evolution of their XR tyre to Cyprus after Subaru and Peugeot tested it independently last week. However neither were conducted in the searing heat expected to be encountered this weekend.

Gronholm told Autosport-Atlas: "We can't read too much into this, it is hard to know much about the tyre. But at least it is wider than we had in Sardinia so the wear rate shouldn't be a problem.
 
"I'm sure we can fight with Petter but we'll have to see if we can fight with Loeb."

Rally Cyprus shakedown times:

Pos  Driver       Make           Time   
 1.  Gronholm     (Peugeot)      1:15.6 
 2.  Solberg      (Subaru)       1:17.8
 3.  Rovanpera    (Mitsubishi)   1:19.0
 4.  Tuohino      (Skoda)        1:19.4
 5.  Carlsson     (Peugeot)      1:19.8*
 6.  Schwarz      (Skoda)        1:20.0
 7.  Atkinson     (Subaru)       1:20.3
 8.  Panizzi      (Mitsubishi)   1:20.7
 9.  Duval        (Citroen)      1:20.8
10.  Martin       (Peugeot)      1:21.1
11.  Kresta       (Ford)         1:21.3
12.  Gardemeister (Ford)         1:21.6
13.  Loeb         (Citroen)      1:21.9
14.  H Solberg    (Ford)         1:22.0* 
15.  Warmbold     (Ford)         1:23.4* 
16.  Stohl        (Citroen)      1:23.6* 
17.  Benik        (Ford)         1:25.4* 

* Privateer

All Timing Unofficial