"For Greece, the terrain and the tyres change… we will have at our disposal brand new BFGoodrich tyres which should be very useful, like in Sardinia after the second loop of Friday where the tyres reached the wear limit. Of course Marcus has the same rubber but the efficiency also lies in the tyres-car package. Who will do best? We will have to wait and see at the next match..."
BP Ford:
[Marcus Gronholm, car #3 and
Mikko Hirvonen, car #4.]
Marcus Gronholm has set his sights on adding to Ford's record on the Acropolis Rally. The M-Sport-run squad have traditionally done well in Greece in recent years and they took four consecutive victories from 2000 to 2003, something that earmarked the Focus as the dominant car on this event. Furthermore although Gronholm failed to score in Sardinia, after going out early on day two when he hit a rock while leading by around 30 seconds, he was extremely impressed with the pace of the Focus and believes they should be just as quick in Greece.
"My retirement in Italy was disappointing but the pace of the car on the opening morning was so good. It surprised me because it was a disadvantage for [Sebastien] Loeb to run first on the road in the loose gravel, but it wasn't that much better for me in second in the start order. I'm confident we can set the same kind of pace in Greece," predicted the Finn "The Focus has a strong history on this rally and it would be nice to add to its winning record."
Gronholm's team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen meanwhile has warned that the event will be extra challenging, now that it will be based around Athens, as opposed to Lamia. As such all the stages, except the super special stage in the Olympic Stadium, which will kick off the event and conclude it, will be different to 2005.
