Karlstad, Feb 09: Finland's Marcus Gronholm continued as the overall leader after the second day of the Sweden rally by winning three stages in a row to extend his lead to 38.8 seconds. The Finn won the Lejen, Vargasen and Torntorp stages in his Peugeot on Saturday (February 8) with second placed Tommi Makinen winning the final stage of the day in his Subaru. Finland's Harri Rovanpera had taken the first stage of the day in his Peugeot but crashed into the Peugeot of another Finn Juuso Pykalisto on the second stage and both were eliminated. Pykalisto was taken to hospital for a check-up, the stage was stopped and joint times were declared. The stewards decided the nine crews who completed the stage should keep the times they set, while Gronholm, Makinen and Burns, who had not finished, were given the stage's best time of 10 minutes and 47.5 seconds returned by Citroen's Carlos Sainz. All the other crews were given the same time as Hyundai's Armin Schwarz -- 11:05.2. The timings were based on previous performances at the rally.


The decision, which left Gronholm, Makkinen, Burns and Sainz tied in fourth place, was questioned by Monte Carlo winner Sebastian Loeb, who was awarded Schwarz's time -- the slowest.


At the foggy 25.04-km Lejen stage, the ninth of the rally, Gronholm finished in 11:56.2, 5.7 seconds ahead of Makkinen and 9.1 in front of third-placed Sebastian Loeb.


Makkinen and Loeb were also beaten into second and third place in the slippery 32.43-km Vargasen stage, where Gronholm finished on 18:08.7, four seconds ahead of Makkinen and 5.8 in front of Loeb.


Gronholm got his third win at the 19.2-km Torntorp stage with 10:12.7 beating Loeb by 1.9 seconds with Makkinen and Burns tied in third.


His overall time of two hours three minutes 29.1 seconds put him 38.8 seconds ahead of Makinen, who stayed second overall after winning the short 1.86-km Hagfors Sprint, the day's final event, on 1:56.8, just a tenth of a second ahead of Peugeot's Burns who remained in third place overall, 1:00.9 behind.


Markko Martin grabbed third place in the final stage to stand fourth overall, 1:46.0 adrift of the leader, while Citroen's former world champion Colin McRae was fifth overall, 2:02.6 off the pace, after recovering from a poor first leg.


Leading positions after the second leg of the Swedish Rally on Saturday: 1. Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot 2 hours 3 minutes 29.1 seconds 2. Tommi Makinen (Finland) Subaru 38.8 seconds behind 3. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot 1:00.9 4. Markko Martin (Estonia) Ford 1:46.0 5. Colin McRae (Britain) Citroen 2:02.6 6. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru 2:12.1 7. Toni Gardemeister (Finland) Skoda 2:25.8 8. Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citreon 2:30.1 9. Freddy Loix (Belgium) Hyundai 2:40.8 10. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen 2:51.4


Bureau Report