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 Ostsberg.  “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.”