Gronholm wins fifth Swedish Rally

Finnish Ford driver Marcus Gronholm swept to his fifth Swedish Rally victory yesterday, beating triple world champion Sebastien Loeb into second place and cutting the Frenchman's championship lead to two points.

Gronholm ended the Swedish Rally on a perfect note by winning the final super special stage on a track of pure ice in one minute 40.7 seconds to put him overall 53.8 seconds ahead of Loeb and taking him to 16 points in the championship.

Second place for Citroen's Loeb, who won the opening Monte Carlo rally last month, put him on 18 points.

Gronholm's fellow Finn Mikko Hirvonen, also driving a Ford, came in third, 1:41.5 back on Gronholm. "It's good, really good," Gronholm replied when asked how he felt after winning the rally for the second year in a row.

Gronholm had dominated this year's rally since early on the second day, showing he was at ease on the snowy and icey roads which make the competition one of the toughest on the calendar.

The drivers have a winter double-header this year with the Norwegian Rally making its debut next weekend.

"Norway is neutral ground, it's a bit different and no one knows it," Gronholm added.

Loeb saw his hopes of repeating his 2004 victory in Sweden disappear on Saturday when a wrong choice of tyres put him as far as 20 seconds behind Gronholm in one of the stages.