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MARCUS
GRONHOLM and Timo Rautiainen have won the 2003 Uddeholm
Swedish Rally!
After
taking the event lead from Citroen's Sebastien Loeb and Daniel
Elena on stage two, Peugeot's maestros quickly built up a
27 second advantage by the end of the first leg.
Despite
valiant efforts from Subaru's Tommi Makinen and Kaj Lindstrom
over the following two days, they could do nothing about Gronholm's
advantage. The World Champion arrived at the finish 50.8 seconds
ahead of Makinen.
Richard
Burns and Robert Reid take third position and bag some useful
World Championship points but the pair were worringly never
on the pace of their team-mate throughout the event.
Ford young
guns, Markko Martin and Michael Park, held off a challenge
from Colin McRae and Derek Ringer on the final leg to take
fourth position, 30 seconds in front of the Scot.
Petter
Solberg and Phil Mills finished just 3.3 seconds behind McRae
in sixth position while Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena finished
seventh ahead of final points position holders, Toni Gardemeister
and Paavo Lukander. Top ten below:
| 1 |
Marcus
Gronholm / Timo Rautiainen |
Peugeot
206 WRC |
3hrs
03mins 28.1secs |
| 2 |
Tommi
Makinen / Kaj Lindstrom |
Subaru
Impreza WRC |
3hrs
04mins 18.9secs |
| 3 |
Richard
Burns / Robert Reid |
Peugeot
206 WRC |
3hrs
04mins 46.0secs |
| 4 |
Markko
Martin / Michael Park |
Ford
Focus WRC |
3hrs
05mins 13.9secs |
| 5 |
Colin
McRae / Derek Ringer |
Citroen
Xsara WRC |
3hrs
05mins 43.9secs |
| 6 |
Petter
Solberg / Phil Mills |
Subaru
Impreza WRC |
3hrs
05mins 47.2secs |
| 7 |
Sebastien
Loeb / Daniel Elena |
Citroen
Xsara WRC |
3hrs
06mins 42.8secs |
| 8 |
Toni
Gardemeister / Paavo Lukander |
Skoda
Octavia WRC |
3hrs
06mins 47.3secs |
| 9 |
Carlos
Sainz / Marc Marti |
Citroen
Xsara WRC |
3hrs
06mins 52.3secs |
| 10 |
Freddy
Loix / Sven Smeets |
Hyundai
Accent WRC |
3hrs
07mins 04.5secs |
- Janne
Tuohino went off the road on stage 14.
- Didier
Auriol lost time with hydraulic problems on stage
17.
- Tommi
Makinen had steering problems on stage 17.
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- Juuso
Valimaki retired with clutch failure on stage seven.
- Stage
eight was stopped after Juuso Pykalisto rolled his
Peugeot 206 WRC. The car was blocking the stage and
Harri Rovanpera, also in a Peugeot 206 WRC, arrived
at the scene at full speed and hit the stricken car.
Nobody was injured but both Peugeot's retired from
the rally.
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- Petter
Solberg went off the road briefly on stage one.
- Colin
McRae lost 40 seconds on stage two after spinning
into a snow bank.
- Didier
Auriol went off the road on stage three.
- Stage
five was cancelled after a car went off the road and
blocked the stage.
- Sebastien
Loeb stalled on stage six.
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