G RON HOLM’ SPACE STUNNER
Two-time champion impress es toyota team with finland test speed
Marcus Gronholm stunned the Toyota Gazoo Racing team with his pace at the first of two tests aboard a Yaris WRC ahead of his return to competition in Rally Sweden next month.
The two-time world champion was driving the car in anger for the first time in Finland last week. He completed 100 miles of running in his one day in the car and, while the team remained tightlipped on his pace, it’s clear he was close to the squad’s current crop of drivers.
Gronholm refused to be drawn into talk potentially pushing for a sixth Rally Sweden win, but admitted he was surprised at how quickly he’d felt at home in the car which won last year’s manufacturers’ world championship.
“I drove this car two years ago on the Harju [street] stage at Rally Finland,” he told Motorsport News.
“Before that I had done maybe six miles of testing and that’s all. Since then I didn’t drive.
“The feeling came really quickly in the snow when I was testing this time. The car was very, very good and easy to drive, this is important. Of course, it took a little time to get in to it, but it was nice.”
Gronholm hasn’t competed at the highest level since finishing 21st on Rally Sweden in a Ford Focus RS WRC in 2010. He ran fifth initially, but his event was spoiled by an electrical problem aboard his private car.
The Finn did, however, record fastest time on his favourite stage, Sagen. But talk of an overall challenge is far from his mind ahead of next month’s rally.
“There is absolutely no chance for me,” he said. “It’s one thing to go down the test road and find that I can still do what I do, but when we go to the stages I don’t have the rhythm that these guys have who are driving in these cars all the time. I want to enjoy myself. I will take away all of the risk from the notes – you know I have the word ‘maybe’ there in the notes before to maybe got flat out, but this time I won’t have that word. I want to reach the finish.”
Gronholm will test the car for one more day in search of a final pre-event set-up just ahead of the February 14-17, Torsby-based event.