 Gronholm trails championship leader Loeb by 35 points |
Finland's Marcus Gronholm extended his lead on the second day of the Rally of Turkey with two stage wins. The Ford driver is chasing championship leader Sebastien Loeb who is currently out of action with a broken arm.
Gronholm had a lead of two minutes and five seconds over fellow Finn Mikko Hirvonen, also driving a Ford Focus.
Norway's Henning Solberg is third for Peugeot, with Britain's Colin McRae, standing in for Loeb in the Kronos Citroen, back in seventh.
Gronholm's quest for the victory that will eat in Loeb's championship lead was aided when Petter Solberg retired on stage 15.
The Norwegian had won five stages in total before his Subaru hit a rock and ended up in a ditch 4km from the end of the penultimate leg of the day.
Rally of Turkey standings after 16 stages:
1. Marcus Groenholm (Finland) Ford 2:49:50.400
2. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland) Ford +02:05.200
3. Henning Solberg (Norway) Peugeot 02:45.600
4. Chris Atkinson (Australia) Subaru 03:04.000
5. Kosti Katajamaki (Finland) Ford 03:05.700
6. Xavier Pons (Spain) Citroen 03:29.500
7. Colin McRae (Britain) Citroen 03:44.200
8. Francois Duval (Belgium) Skoda 04:12.200
9. Manfred Stohl (Austria) Peugeot 04:21.700
10. Daniel Sordo (Spain) Citroen 04:28.000
Stages one and two cancelled on Friday because of bad weather.
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