Gronholm triumphs in Cyprus Rally
NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Finland's Marcus Gronholm won the Cyprus Rally to give Peugeot its first win this season with the 307 WRC in the fifth round of the 2004 World Championship.
The 2001 world champion has a one point lead over Citroen's Sebastian Loeb, who finished second overall and currently has 33 points in the drivers championship after winning the first two races this year.
The Finn's victory placed him among the top ten winners, with 16 career victories to his name.
Gronholm, who took an early lead in the rally and stayed ahead from the fourth to the 18th stage, began Sunday's third leg with a good 22.9 seconds ahead of Loeb and took advantage of the day's longest stage to build up a 54 second gap by the finish in the southern coastal town of Limassol.
Estonian Markko Martin, winner of the Mexico Rally, started the day in third overall in the only Ford Focus and maintained his position to the end despite losing transmission oil on the 16th special stage, two stages before the end.
Fourth overall was Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who lost valuable time on Saturday with tyre problems to finish fourth overall in the second Citroen, ahead of Finland's Harri Rovanpera, who suffered persistent transmission problems in the second Peugeot 307.
