Marcus Gronholm has said that he is very 'proud' to have taken his second win in succession in Sweden on Sunday - and his fifth in total - a result that puts him equal second in the all-time standings alongside Carlos Sainz, with 26 WRC wins in total.
The
BP Ford team driver, who dominated the event, winning eleven of the twenty snow and ice-bound tests, stamped his authority on the rally on Saturday with five consecutive special stage victories. That allowed him to build a comfortable cushion and as such he could pace himself through the final leg, eventually beating Citroen's
Sebastien Loeb by more than 50 seconds.
Speaking at the finish he was delighted with his drive and the performance of the Focus RS WRC: "It was a perfect weekend with no problems for the car or with my driving. It's my fifth win here and that's an achievement I'm proud of.
"On Saturday morning I had the chance to substantially increase my lead over Seb and I took it. My advantage more than doubled in two stages and after that I had a little bit of breathing space.
"The only real problem this weekend was the temperature this morning. It was so cold on the first stage that there was ice inside the car on the rear windows and, even with foot warmers, my feet were so cold it was hard to feel the pedals."
Gronholm's co-driver, Timo Rautiainen meanwhile conceded that they needed to win this weekend, given that Loeb won at the season opening, Rallye Monte Carlo, last month.
"I didn't feel pressure. But we realised before the event we need to win and this was one of the events we could do it. I am glad we did," he added.
"Petter [Solberg] was a threat. When he started in a good position on Friday, we were sure he would beat us. Luckily it wasn't so, we caught him, even a little bit on Friday morning and then it wasn't such a big issue.
"When you think about the loose snow it wasn't such a big thing, but when we drive on the stage, I didn't like it. The only good thing was Sebastien was having more trouble ahead of us. He was on a different tyre to us, and he coped very well on that, but it was hard."
