Grönholm returns with Ford

Marcus Grönholm, world rally champion in 2000 and 2002, will make his return in WRC on the snowy roads of Rally from Sweden, next February. The Finn, in 2009, only participated in one round of the world championship, in Portugal, with a Subaru Impreza, and the event ended in retirement. For the first round of the next WRC season, Grönholm will be at the wheel of a Ford Focus, information that Malcolm Wilson advanced with almost certainty in the columns of AUTOhebdo this week.

If Grönholm will see his Focus prepared by M-Sport, he will not be integrated into the main team, reserved only for Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala. The Finn will be part of a team set up for the occasion, the Therminator Rally Team, a structure which will also feature the Finn Matthias Therman.

« Sweden has always been one of my favorite rallies ", Grönholm told wrc.com. “ Since I retired from rallying, I regularly thought about running the legendary Sagen special one last time. I am very impatient to have the opportunity to compete in it. My goal is to fight for victory. However, you have to remember that I no longer have the same pace of life as the best pilots. »

Marcus Grönholm drove for Ford for two years, in 2006 and 2007, winning twelve victories and finishing two years in a row runner-up in the World Rally Championship behind Sébastien. Loeb.