Marcus Gronholm finished the first day of Rally Portugal in fourth place after setting some impressive times during the day’s six stages. Until the final stage of the day, Gronholm was comfortably lying in second place, but caught the slowing Ford of Al Qassimi and lost time, before being able to pass him.

Just six seconds behind third placed Loeb, and 24 seconds off the lead, Gronholm is well placed to attack the cars ahead of his Prodrive Impreza WRC2008.  On day two he may have a small benefit from road cleaning on the morning stages from the three cars ahead of him.

The two time World Rally champion set a strong pace in the morning’s stages in his Prodrive Impreza WRC2008, setting two second and one third fastest stage time to lie second overall, just 3.2 seconds off Sordo at the lunchtime service.  During the repeats of the morning stages, Gronholm was setting top five stage times and comfortably maintaining second place.

“The road position was quite good for us, but I struggled a little with the notes at the beginning, they were not perfect and it was difficult to find a rhythm,” said Gronholm.  “The second pass through the afternoon stages was a bit rougher and not so much fun.  Then, on the last stage, we came across Khalid and lost some time getting past him and then there was some vibration through the steering, so we took it steady.

“The plan for tomorrow is to follow the others, I think they will be very quick.  But we’ll see what we can do.”

Mads Ostberg, in the second Prodrive Impreza WRC2008, suffered a damaged brake caliper during the day’s first stage, which cost him significant time during the first loop of stages. 

“The brake felt like it was fading off in middle of the stage and I thought it was just getting hot,” said Ostberg.  “The brakes got soft and I had to pump them a little and we lost a lot of time in the second half of the stage.  Before the last stage we bled the system properly so had brakes but only on the front.”

During the afternoon, Ostberg was regularly setting top ten times and finished the day in tenth.  “Tomorrow I will push again and see if we can make up some time and get into the points,” said Ostberg.

Prodrive team principal, David Lapworth, was very impressed with Gronholm’s performance.  “To come out and set these times after such a long break and so little time in the car, is extremely impressive,” said Lapworth.  “Clearly the road position favoured Marcus, but he is definitely finding a rhythm and pace he is comfortable with.  I think we can be very pleased with the way everything has gone today.”

On the first stage of day two this morning (SS8), Marcus Gronholm was about 4 km from the start, when the car ran wide on a left hand bend and the rear clipped a tree, sending the car into a roll. The car ended up off the road but on its wheels. Marcus was able to restart the car and to continue along the stage. However, as he was pulling over to let Petter Solberg pass, an engine warning light came on. Gronholm stopped the car and the team advised him not to continue.

On further inspection on the car’s return to service it was apparent the accident led to a loss of coolant, damaging the engine.  Unfortunately, this prevents the car from returning on Sunday under super rally regulations.

“It’s disappointing for me and for the team because we wanted a nice result from here,” said Gronholm.  “I have not been rallying for a long time and coming back starting behind Seb and trying to do the same time in a new car, is not so easy.  We were on the pace yesterday and pushing today and I made a small mistake.”

Rally Portugal is a one off event for Prodrive and Gronholm, but team principal, David Lapworth, hopes the pace Gronholm has shown in the Impreza, will help the team secure more outings this year.

“Accidents happen in rallying, but that doesn’t make it any easier to take,” said Lapworth. “Marcus had shown that we could compete on the same pace as the leading drivers yesterday and, with our road position today, we were hoping to start reeling in the cars ahead of us.  I see Portugal as unfinished business for Prodrive and I hope that we will see Marcus back in the Impreza in the not too distant future.”