Kronos boss, Marc van Dalen meanwhile believes that will face a tougher challenge in the second half of the season: "I have the feeling that the second half of the season will be even harder than the first part, with eight rallies in less than four months, including three overseas events, amongst which is Japan - that Kronos will discover for the first time. It will be very intense and even if everything goes well, the team will have no time for a break or space for any mistake," he said.
"We will ‘dive in the water’ straight away with Germany and Finland happening with only a one week interval, and so there is very little time for the transfer to Jyväskylä, the Xsaras’ check-up and their modifications into the gravel configuration. In these conditions, we will do our maximum to give our drivers, like for the first half of the season, reliable and performing Xsaras. We can also count on
Citroen Sport's valuable help for that. Our main target is to allow Sebastien and Daniel [Elena] to maintain their lead in the drivers' rankings. But we will also try hard to defend our first position in the manufacturers’ championship too."
BP Ford:
[Marcus Gronholm, car #3 and
Mikko Hirvonen, car #4.]
Marcus Gronholm reckons that he should be able to win the Rallye Deutschland. He is acutely aware though that it will not be easy, especially given the form of
Sebastien Loeb this season and his record on the German event. Gronholm though needs a win if he is to stand any chance of taking the drivers' title this season, as currently, he lies second, 29 points behind the Frenchman.
