Nick Koan

iTrader: (3)

Full Story from wrc.com

Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm has said he's happy to have got the monkey off his back with his Neste Rally Finland victory, ending a winless streak that stretched back 12 months to last year's event. The Finn always predicted that his home rally could be his best chance to win this year, and lived up to expectations with a dominant drive.

Gronholm took the lead of the event after the first three stages and was never headed, slowly building up a lead over Citroen's Sebastien Loeb that the Frenchman was never able to close. The double champion has won Rally Finland four times in of the last five years, and has expert knowledge of the fast forest stages around Jyvaskyla. His Peugeot is also at its best on the long, sweeping roads that make up the event.

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Nick Koan

iTrader: (3)

Gronholm was lucky to be able to continue in the event after an alarming incident on Friday in which co-driver Timo Rautiainen was left severely winded and with intense back pain after landing heavily on one of Finland's notorious bumps.

"I am relieved and really happy for ourselves and the team," said Gronholm, who gave Peugeot's 307 its first and, up until now, only win in Finland last year. "It has been a long year without any victories. We really expected this. Our only problem was Timo's back. Today we only had to be careful into to hit any rocks or holes."

Gronholm has now moved past Subaru's Petter Solberg into second place in the championship standings, but his hopes of catching Loeb in the title chase and scoring a third drivers' crown remain bleak as the Frenchman's second place in Finland was enough to secure him a healthy 28-point lead with just six events left.

Kuth678

I'll go weep in the corner by myself now.... c'mon Petter.... get moving!!!!