Greece, June 06: World rally championship leader Richard Burns will be looking for his first win with Peugeot as he warms up for the Acropolis rally in Greece. Peugeot team mate Marcus Gronholm was declared the winner of the last event in Argentina after Briton Burns was disqualified for a technical error. Gronholm, the defending world champion from Finland, said is ready for toughest event in the European calendar. "It is normally dry and you have this loose gravel for the first class is no good. For example, last year I could not really fight for a win but, ok, I was second then but in the first day I lost a lot of time." Burns also won in Greece before and will be keen as ever to beat Colin McRae, the Scotsman who will looking for his first his first victory with Citroen after winning in the heat and dust of Greece for the last three years. Gronholm, driving a Peugeot when he finished second to McRae last year, is seen by team mate Burns as an awesome opponent.


"Yes, they finished second here last year and also they won in Cyprus," he said hoping that Peugeot can show their strenght in the rough terrain: "It's not fragile as it used to be, whether it is quite strong enough to beat the Fords and the Subarus we're not quite sure," Burns said.


Gronholm, winner of the last two rounds, is not a big fan of the car-breaking Acropolis with its boulders and sharp-edged rocks but he was happy with the rule which allows cars to take an extra wheel.


"Yes, it is very good that we can very two spare wheels because the tyre wearing is very hard, very hard on the tyres. Maybe not the punctures -- ok there is punctures also but mainly that we can put two new tyres in the front after two stages, but then we are doing three stages together, that's very important."


Burns said the special tyres which release a mousse that temporarily stops the punctures have been proving good but added extra weight should be avoided if possible.


"You have to keep an eye for the bigger stones. Generally, you try not to take to spare if you can get away with because it is obviously a lot of extra weight, said the Briton who is chasinsg his first victory with Peugeot since taking the world title in 2001 with Subaru.


"Normally with the new system that we have inside the tyres, you can get away with it, even if you start the stage with a puncture, then that mousse will fill the tyre. I've certainly started stages in the past with three punctures and you don't really noticed so much. But you have to drive a little bit considering the .... road," Burns added.

The ceremonial start of the rally, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, is on Thursday (June 5) in front of the Acropolis in Athens.


There are then two legs over the mountains near the Parnassos national park and a third around the Timphristos mountains in northern Greece.


Result of the last event, the Rally of Argentina (25 stages) which ended on Sunday (May 11): 1. Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot four hours 14 minutes 45 seconds 2. Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citroen 26.6 seconds behind 3. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot 1:12.8 4. Harri Rovanpera (Finland) Peugeot 2:19.3 5. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru 3:11.4 6. Didier Auriol (France) Skoda 7:58.5 7. Toni Gardemeister (Finland) Skoda 8:33.7 8. Francois Duval (Belgium) Ford 11:55.3 9. Toshihiro Arai (Japan) Subaru 20:01.7 10. Gabriel Raies (Argentina) Toyota 20:03.4


World championship standings: 1. Burns 32 points 2. Gronholm 30 3. Sainz 24 4. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen 17 5. Colin McRae (Britain) Citroen 17 6. Solberg 13 7. Markko Martin (Estonia) Ford 13 8. Tommi Makinen (Finland) Subaru 11 9. Duval 9 10. Gardemeister 9


Manufacturers: 1. Peugeot 65 points 2. Citroen 52 3. Ford 29 4. Subaru 27 5. Skoda 19 6. Hyundai 3


Bureau Report