Oz rally - Gronholm on top

Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm gave his chances of winning his fifth rally this season a huge boost with his first stage victory of day two of the Rally of Australia.

The Finn extended his lead over Petter Solberg in the Subaru by a further six seconds after the Norwegian broke his front damper. Gronholm now has a 38.2 second lead at the top after Special Stage 16.

Gronholm’s team-mate Harri Rovanpera drove the third fastest time to maintain the pressure on Solberg but the battle is on between Ford’s Carlos Sainz and Subaru’s Tommi Makinen.

The Spaniard gained almost four seconds on the Finn who is chasing him for fourth spot on the leaderboard.

The main casualty was Mitsubishi’s Jani Paasonen who rolled his Lancer midway through the stage.

Although he got the car going again he lost over a minute allowing Juha Kankkunen to move into 10th overall.