After half a season of disappointment, Peugeot has finally gotten a win under the belt of the new 307. Marcus Gronholm took the win in Finland (his home event) over Ford’s Markko Martin by 38 seconds. Peugeot looked as if they’d take a one-two, but Harri Rovanpera’s late day shunt on Leg 1 put an end to that. Citroen had another fine rally, especially after their rocky start, with Carlos Sainz and Sebastien Loeb taking third and fourth. The Finns weren’t far behind, with Janne Tohihno taking fifth (and scoring points for Ford) and Skoda’s Jani Passonen taking sixth. Rounding out the points were Ford’s Francois Duval and Skoda’s Toni Gardemeister.

It was a rough event for Subaru, with Petter Solberg’s crash on Leg 1 and then Mikko Hirvonen’s slightly embarrassing shunt during the leg’s final super special stage (a 2km sprint thought a man-made course in a stadium, put on mostly for the fans). Both went on to set a stack of scratch times over Legs 2 and 3 (thanks to the SupeRally test), but that’s not much to hang your hat on, and Solberg, while still holding second place in the championship standings, now stands 22 points behind Loeb heading into the tarmac rounds.

Skoda had a fine return to the WRC, with two cars finishing in the points. The Czech team will be taking part in the remainder of the European rounds, so they could be quite competitve (and they could upset the championship balance a bit as well). Mitsubishi had a decent rally as well. Neither Gilles Panizzi or Gianluigi Galli finished in the points, but both Lancers made it to finish ramp on Sunday.

Next up — the rough roads of the Rally Germany. Seb Loeb has won this event three years running, and he’ll be favorite this year as well. This rally also represents Solberg’s best chance to steal points away from Loeb on the tarmac rounds — the rougher, changeable surfaces don’t favor Loeb’s Michelin tyres much over Solberg’s Pirellis.

Posted on 9 August 2004