Gronholm drives Ford to title

[Plex]

Flawless Marcus Gronholm cruised to his fourth New Zealand rally title Sunday and ended a 27-year title drought for Ford by clinching the World Rally Constructors Championship.

With injured Frenchman Sebastien Loeb already assured of retaining his world drivers crown, despite missing the last three rounds after breaking an arm, the constructor's crown was the coveted consolation prize here.

Gronholm showed on day one he was determined to claim it for Ford when he won the opening five stages and he went on to complete an emphatic 56-second victory over team-mate and fellow Finn Mikko Hirvonen.

Austrian Manfred Stohl, in a Peugeot, was third, two minutes 39.3 seconds down on Gronholm.

"It's a great feeling to win the rally and secure the world title on the same day," Gronholm said after easing up on the final stages to ensure he finished and claim all but four of the rally's 17 stages.

"The manufacturer's title was always on my mind, I thought a lot about not making a mistake and looking stupid."

Despite puncturing after hitting a fence post during the first stage on Friday he still won the sector easily and steadily built his buffer until the conclusion of the 360 kilometres.

"The first day I was pushing it like normal. Then we had a small gap to Mikko and he was not really attacking too much because we wanted to take the points from here," he said.

"After that we were looking at how the others were going and waiting for the finish. It was quite easy because we had no problems with the car."

Hirvonen, who won his maiden WRC race in Australia last month, was happy to take the back seat and keep an eye on Loeb's Kronos Total Citroen team.

But the French outfit had to be content with fourth and fifth placings to Xavier Pons and Dani Sorbo respectively, giving Ford an unassailable 25-point lead with only next month's Great Britain rally remaining.

Rally drawcard Valentino Rossi also justified the hype generated by his guest appearance by climbing from 24th to 11th overall in his black Subaru.

"I'm satisfied I arrive at the end without problems and no damage," he said.

Source: http://motoring.iafrica.com/worldsport/wrc/441490.htm