Gronholm cruises to victory in Oz rally

Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm rounded off Rally Australia with a flourish, setting the fastest time on the final stage in Perth to confirm his fifth win of the year.

The Finn needs just one more victory to equal the record of wins in one season set by Didier Auriol in 1992 – a record marred only by the fact that Auriol didn’t manage to win the title.

The World Champion-elect’s domination this season lacks only an asphalt victory but he must wait another year to correct that omission from his CV. The final event of 2002 is Rally GB, held in the mud of south Wales in two weeks time.

Meanwhile, former world champion Tommi Makinen was stripped of fourth place after his car repeatedly failed weight checks.

Gronholm grabbed the lead on the third stage of the rally and was never headed.

Petter Solberg in a Subaru briefly offered a challenge but today lost the plot with his tyre choices and was unable to maintain his charge.

Indeed, he also lost second place as Gronholm’s fellow Finn and team-mate, Harri Rovanpera, stormed past him thanks to winning three of the day’s four stages.

Stewards are currently investigating Tommi Makinen’s car after it has twice failed a weight check today.

Solberg’s team-mate ended the final stage in fourth place but must now wait to see if the problem is with his car or the scales used to check its compliance with the technical regulations.

Should it prove to be the car then the Finn can expect to be removed from the standings within a few hours.

Spain’s Carlos Sainz and Markko Martin of Estonia rounded out the points places for Ford after Belgian rising star Francois Duval crashed out.

But should Makinen be excluded then the final place in the points will go to Finland’s Toni Gardemeister in a Skoda.

Karamjit Singh became the Production Car World Champion this weekend, taking a sensibly cautious approach with his Proton to become the first Malaysian World Champion in the history of the sport.

The Australian event was a disaster for Britain’s leading drivers Richard Burns and Colin McRae.

Burns was sidelined on day one when his Peugeot suffered clutch failure and McRae had to withdraw yesterday after a violent landing after a big jump smashed the Ford’s radiator and dumped all the water out in one go.

The teams now travel half way round the globe to Cardiff for the final championship event where conditions will be a far cry from the sunshine of Australia’s early summer.

McRae and Burns will be eager to end the season with a home win but, on his current form, Gronholm will again be the man to beat.