Gronholm has Loeb in his sights

Marcus Gronholm believes he can dust off the cobwebs and beat Sebastien Loeb to re-ignite the world championship chase in this weekend’s Rally Germany.

After a 10-week break between rallies, Gronholm finally gets a chance to build on his Acropolis win and erode Loeb’s championship lead further.

Ford driver Gronholm trails by 29 points but hopes to cut that gap on a rally Loeb has made his own with four consecutive victories.

He said: “I think I can do it. I’ve been close to winning previously. It won’t be easy because Loeb has won four times in Germany and he is good in the slippery conditions that we often find there.

“It would be good to beat him and shake him up a little. The Focus is good enough and now it is up to the driver.”

Loeb is the firm favourite this weekend before a trip to Finland, where Gronholm is king.

However, despite his German dominance, Loeb is still wary of Gronholm’s threat and predicts fireworks on the next two events.

“It will be exciting,” the Citroen driver said. “Both of us will try to win in the rival camp.

“But as we start with Germany, I will focus on that target first, which is winning at ’home’.

“I am extremely cautious. Marcus has often been competitive there. I won for less than four seconds in 2003 and we’ve seen his car perform well since the start of the year.

“The duel will be tight and it might happen that other drivers share the battle as well. The weather could also play an important role and if everyone thinks I am the favourite, I know nothing is done.

“But I am convinced the team, the car and myself are ready for the fight.”

One of the drivers most likely to muscle in on the Loeb-Gronholm scrap is Petter Solberg, but his preparations got off to a terrible start.

The Norwegian wrecked his Subaru in testing when he ploughed into trees, giving his mechanics a long job of rebuilding the car in time for the first stage.

He said: “The car took a big knock. The guys are working flat out now to try and repair things. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”