Gronholm Powers Dominate Ford Focus to Victory in Sweden
 

Marcus Gr?¶nholm and Timo Rautiainen won their fifth Swedish Rally today as BP-Ford World Rally Team closed to within a point of the leaders in the FIA World Rally Championship. The Finns dominated this second round of the 16-event series in their Ford Focus RS World Rally Car, winning 11 of the 20 snow and ice-bound speed tests. Team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen claimed their eighth podium in the last 11 rallies by finishing third in another Focus RS.

The 39-year-old Finn led the four-day rally in central Sweden from midway through the first leg. He stamped his authority on the rally with five consecutive special stage victories yesterday and was able to pace himself through today's final leg. Gr?¶nholm's 26th career victory took him to equal second in the all-time standings alongside Carlos Sainz.

Drivers tackled 342.09km of stages, the bulk clustered around the small town of Hagfors, 90km north of the rally base in Karlstad. Frozen roads and plenty of snow ensured near-perfect conditions throughout. While the weather was relatively mild for a Scandinavian winter during the first two legs, today's final action was played out in bitterly cold temperatures that plunged to -22?°C this morning as drivers prepared for the final five tests covering 86.32km.

Source: [url=http://news.hspn.com/articles/1172/1/Gronholm-Powers-Dominate-Ford-Focus-to-Victory-in-Sweden/Page1.html]HSPN News[/url]