Gronholm crashes and Burns benefits
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Your support makes all the difference.The newly crowned world champion, Marcus Gronholm, crashed out of the Network Q Rally of Great Britain yesterday after holding a commanding lead. The Finn rolled his Peugeot on stage 10 of the course, which he went into with an advantage of 68 seconds over Estonia's Markko Martin.
Gronholm's exit gave England's Richard Burns, his team-mate and the man he deposed to claim the world crown, a glimmer of hope as he was now only 52 seconds off the pace having battled back after going off yesterday.
Such had been Gronholm's dominance in the event that following today's opening test – the longest of the rally – it looked like only an accident or mechanical failure could deny him repeating his success of last year.
He had extended his overnight margin of 48.3 seconds with a consummate display at Resolfen, where Burns had leapfrogged Colin McRae and Tommi Makinen in climbing two places to sixth.
The next test, at Crychan, was a short one and the top 10 remained unchanged, but then came the stage which threw the rally wide open.
Gronholm had already revealed that he was "finding it harder to get into a rhythm this morning", and his chances of achieving a record-equalling sixth win of the season disappeared on the 10.7-mile Halfway section. With the champion out of the way, Martin the surprise package of the rally, found himself battling for the lead in his Ford.
Martin was 3.5 seconds ahead of the Norwegian, who competes for Subaru, with Carlos Sainz, a further 13.2seconds behind in what could well be be his last outing for Ford. But the first three would now be looking over their shoulders at Burns, who with a series of emphatic displays, shrugged off the loss of one-and-a-half minutes, lifting himself firmly back into contention.
Colin McRae was sixth, a minute and a half behind Martin, and looking like he needed more retirements among the principals to lift his hopes of ending his Ford career on a high before joining Citroen.
A disappointed Peugeot team manager, Corrado Provera, confirmed that Gronholm was unhurt after the accident: "I know Marcus is not injured and I can imagine how sad they must feel, It is the first time it has happened to him this year and they deserved to win for the stage times they have been setting. It wasn't a massive accident."
Provera now focuses his attention on Burns, and is hopeful that the Englishman can secure his fourth win on home soil: "It depends on Richard but I think it's possible."
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