Marcus "Bosse" Grönholm (born February 5, 1968 in Kauniainen) is a Finnish former

rally driver. Driving for Peugeot, he won the World Rally Championship in 2000 and
2002. After Peugeot withdrew from the World Rally Championship, Grönholm moved to
Ford for the 2006 season and placed second in the drivers' world championship, losing
the title to Sébastien Loeb by one point. The next year he again placed second, four
points behind Loeb. He and his co-driver Timo Rautiainen retired from rallying after the
2007 season but returned to the championship in 2009 driving a private Subaru for a short
period of time.

Grönholm also won the 2002 Race of Champions, taking home the Henri Toivonen
Memorial Trophy and earning the title "Champion of Champions". At the 2006 Race of
Champions, he formed team Finland with Heikki Kovalainen and the pair won the
Nations' Cup.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Career
o 1.1 Early career
o 1.2 1999-2005: Peugeot
o 1.3 2006-2007: Ford
o 1.4 Later career
• 2 Personal life
• 3 Titles
• 4 WRC wins
• 5 Complete WRC results
• 6 References

• 7 External links

[edit] Career
[edit] Early career

Marcus' father, Ulf "Uffe" Grönholm, had been an active rally driver in the late 1970s to
early 1980s, and with measurable success too, winding up twice Finnish champion. He
was killed during a practice run for Hankiralli on February 25, 1981 in Kirkkonummi.
Despite this connection, his son, only 13 years old at the time of his father's death, was
latterly to refute any suggestion that it was Ulf, and not fellow rally-driving cousin (and
occasional Peugeot factory squad team-mate at various points during the early 2000s),
Sebastian Lindholm, who tempted him into following in his father's footsteps by also
participating in the sport.[1] In his teens Grönholm was fond of motocross as a recreational
activity, but a serious knee injury forced a switch to boxing.
Grönholm featured in various bit-part roles in the world series throughout the 1990s,
most notably with Toyota with whom he drove Celicas and Corolla WRCs. Much
considered as a late-bloomer he didn't become a 'factory driver' until his early 30s. A
staggering string of fastest stage times one year as a privateer, on the final day of the
Rally Finland, subsequently brought him to the attention of such factory teams as Ford,
Toyota and Peugeot, who all presented him with offers for further employment. It was
only when he joined the latter marque, championship newcomers for 1999, that he began
to enjoy such meteoric success.

[edit] 1999-2005: Peugeot

Grönholm driving a Peugeot 206 WRC at the 2001 Rally Finland.

After suffering an engine failure on the season-opening round in Monte Carlo in 2000, he
took his first championship win on the Swedish Rally the following month, with the 206
WRC. Consequent wins, including on his home round of the series, were sufficient to see
off closest points challenger, Subaru's Richard Burns and land a shock first title after
finishing second to the Englishman in the Rally of Great Britain. After an irksome and
unsuccessful championship defence in 2001 during which assorted mechanical problems
kept him down to 4th overall in the points table, he easily won his second title in 2002, at
times displaying Michael Schumacher-esque dominance of the sport.

Grönholm with a Peugeot 307 WRC at the 2004 Monte Carlo Rally.

Grönholm initially seemed to be carrying on from where he left off in the opening rounds
of 2003: He led the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, threatening to score a shock win
over the armada of Citroens until his Peugeot team's customary misfortune struck, as well
as securing astounding early-season victories in New Zealand and Argentina - the latter a
stirring comeback drive from sixth to deny a time-penalised Carlos Sainz. But he failed to
cobble together a sufficiently consistent points-scoring run to truly have a hope in
retaining his title. With the subsequent introduction of the bulkier Peugeot 307 WRC by
the team's parent marque for 2004, he was to score only three more rally wins over the
following two seasons. Two of those came in Finland; the remainder, an emotional
inherited victory in Japan after the retirement of long-time leader Petter Solberg's Subaru,
to follow on from the tragic Wales Rally GB just a week beforehand, where the sport had
witnessed Peugeot team-mate Markko Martin's navigator Michael Park's death in a crash.
With the PSA Group representative teams jointly withdrawing from the championship for
2006, Grönholm was left to search for employment elsewhere.

[edit] 2006-2007: Ford

Grönholm driving a Ford Focus WRC at the 2006 Cyprus Rally.

For the 2006 season, Grönholm switched to the Ford team, driving their all-new 2006-
specification Focus WRC. On his debut, in January, he won his first ever tarmac rally in
Monte Carlo, beating Sébastien Loeb by over a minute, albeit beaten by the Frenchman
on the road with the championship's unliked 'Superally' regulations coming to his rescue
as a shunt for the Citroën hastened its exit from Leg One. Although he was to follow this
up with an entirely credible win in the second event of the season, Sweden, subsequent
events saw Loeb surge past into a comfortable lead: the Frenchman was to never finish
below second place in every event he entered, while his adversary was left to rue a string
of retirements and errors that stymied his challenge.

Grönholm at the 2006 Telstra Rally Australia.

In the meantime, the hopeful Finn collected victories over Loeb in Greece and Finland.
Loeb's hopes seemed to be coming to fruituition when yet another victory in Cyprus
brought him to the brink of the title; however he was to suffer his own blow days later
when injury from a biking accident forced him out of the last four rounds of the series.
Marcus was able to push within one point of the lead in the total standings as Loeb
recovered, but his claim to the title was finally extinguished when he rolled out of
contention on the first leg of the penultimate event in Australia. Some solace for
Gronholm, though, came in that another victory in New Zealand ahead of team-mate
Mikko Hirvonen was to confirm the manufacturers' title for his Ford team over Loeb-less
Kronos Citroen.

Marcus Grönholm at the "Circus Maximus" SSS of 2007 Rallye Deutschland.

The 2007 season started in good fashion for Grönholm. He claimed third place in the
75ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo behind the dominant returning works
Citroens, and then the top spot in the Swedish Rally, mirroring the previous year's result.
While the usually consummate Loeb tumbled out of the points from a potentially
auspicious position in both Norway and Sardinia, Grönholm remained consistent and
after winning for the 28th time in his career over the Citroen titan in Greece, led the
championship by nine points over Loeb over the championship's summer break. At the
2007 Rally Finland, Ford secured a one-two with Grönholm taking the win and Hirvonen
the second place ahead of Loeb. At the next rally, the 2007 Rallye Deutschland,
Grönholm got distracted by a cow along the road and made a driving error while trying to
secure a second place ahead of hard-charging François Duval, dropping him to fourth
place behind his team-mate.

Grönholm in his last rally at the 2007 Wales Rally GB.

Then came New Zealand, where after a tight battle over all three legs, Grönholm took a
victory of historic slenderness over Loeb. The final winning margin between the two
represented the closest ever in the history of the World Rally Championship: 0.3 seconds.
This victory put him ten points clear in the championship with five rounds remaining.
Podium finishes in Spain and France kept him on track for the championship, but after
crashing out early at both Japan and Ireland the championship lead switched back to
Loeb. Second place at Wales Rally GB was not enough to dislodge Loeb and so
Grönholm finished the season as runner-up.

On 14 September 2007, Grönholm announced long-rumoured plans to retire from rallying

at the end of the 2007 season, stating that "I wanted to stop while I still had the speed to
win rallies. I didn't want to leave the decision too late so that I wasn't capable of winning
any longer",[2] also citing the opportunity ahead of him to potentially retire as a three-time
World Rally Champion.

[edit] Later career

Rallycross: The 560 bhp Ford Fiesta ST ERCs of Marcus Grönholm and Andreas
Eriksson in Stockholm

On April 16 Marcus Grönholm, at a press conference in the Kungsträdgården of

Stockholm, announced a limited programme to take part in at least five rounds of the FIA
European Championships for Rallycross Drivers (ERC). Grönholm participated in the
series as team member of Andréas Eriksson's Ford Team RS Europe and, like the 2003
Swedish rally champion, drove a brand new 4WD Ford Fiesta ST European Rallycross
Car (ERC) with 560 bhp (420 kW) and 800+ Nm torque that goes from 0 to 100 km/h in
2.2 seconds, faster than any current Formula One car. The programme was later reduced
to three 2008 ERC rounds (Sweden, Holland and Poland). Grönholm qualified on pole
and went on to take the win in his ERC debut at Höljes in Sweden on July 6 in front of
23,400 spectators.[3]

In August 2008, Grönholm turned down Stobart M-Sport Ford's offer to return to the
WRC to replace the injured Gigi Galli.[4] It was later reported that the factory teams of
Citroën and Subaru both wanted to sign him for the 2009 season. In December,
Grönholm and Subaru were reportedly close to signing to a full 12-event program, when
the team re-structured the potential deal for financial reasons to include only four events,
which did not interest Grönholm.[5] Soon after, Subaru announced its shock withdrawal
from the series due to the economic downturn.

Grönholm came out of retirement to contest the 2009 Rally Portugal in a Prodrive-
prepared Subaru Impreza WRC2008. He stated that he was not aiming for the win and
that "it will be fun to return [to the WRC], even in an ad-hoc way, in a car that I don’t
know at all and after a year where I competed in some rallycross events."[6] Despite this
Grönholm performed well and stayed in touch with the leaders; he was in 4th position
when he crashed on Saturday’s opening stage, damaging the car's engine and ending his
rally.[7]

It has been confirmed by Grönholm that he will take part in the 2010 Rally Sweden
driving a Ford Focus RS WRC for Team Therminator, alongside countryman Matthias
Therman. Grönholm will be co-driven, as usual, by Timo Rautiainen. He finished the
2010 Rally Sweden- the first round of the 2010 WRC season in 21st place after technical
problems on stage 6 costing him 13 minutes making him drop down to 33rd then making
all the way up again until he got to 24th place but then dropped again to 30th place
because of a puncture costing him another 7 minutes. At the end of Rally Sweden he
finished 21st. [8].

[edit] Personal life

Grönholm lives in Inkoo with his wife Teresa and their three children. He and his co-
driver Timo Rautiainen are brothers-in-law.[9]

He is a member of Mensa Finland.[10]

[edit] Titles
Year Title Car
1991 Finnish champion (Group N) Toyota Celica GT-Four
1994 Finnish champion (Group A) Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD
1996 Finnish champion (Group A) Toyota Celica GT-Four
1997 Finnish champion (Group A) Toyota Celica GT-Four
Toyota Corolla WRC /
1998 Finnish champion (Group A)
Toyota Celica GT-Four
2000 World Rally Champion Peugeot 206 WRC
2002 World Rally Champion Peugeot 206 WRC
2002 Champion of Champions Varies

[edit] WRC wins

Grönholm at the famous Bunnings Jumps during the 2006 Rally Australia.
# Event Season Co-driver Car
Timo
1 49th International Swedish Rally 2000 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
2 30th Rally New Zealand 2000 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
3 50th Neste Rally Finland 2000 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
4 13th Telstra Rally Australia 2000 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
5 51st Neste Rally Finland 2001 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
6 14th Telstra Rally Australia 2001 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
57th Network Q Rally of Great Timo
7 2001 Peugeot 206 WRC
Britain Rautiainen
Timo
8 51st Uddeholm Swedish Rally 2002 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
9 30th Cyprus Rally 2002 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
10 52nd Neste Rally Finland 2002 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
11 32nd Propecia Rally New Zealand 2002 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
12 15th Telstra Rally Australia 2002 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
13 52nd Uddeholm Swedish Rally 2003 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
14 33rd Propecia Rally New Zealand 2003 Timo Peugeot 206 WRC
 Rautiainen
Timo
15 23º Rally Argentina 2003 Peugeot 206 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
16 54th Neste Rally Finland 2004 Peugeot 307 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
17 55th Neste Rally Finland 2005 Peugeot 307 WRC
Rautiainen
Timo
18 2nd Rally Japan 2005 Peugeot 307 WRC
Rautiainen
74ème Rallye Automobile Monte- 2006 Timo Ford Focus RS
19
Carlo Rautiainen WRC 06
Timo Ford Focus RS
20 55th Uddeholm Swedish Rally 2006
Rautiainen WRC 06
Timo Ford Focus RS
21 53rd Acropolis Rally 2006
Rautiainen WRC 06
Timo Ford Focus RS
22 56th Neste Oil Rally Finland 2006
Rautiainen WRC 06
Timo Ford Focus RS
23 7th Rally of Turkey 2006
Rautiainen WRC 06
Timo Ford Focus RS
24 36th Propecia Rally New Zealand 2006
Rautiainen WRC 06
Timo Ford Focus RS
25 62nd Wales Rally GB 2006
Rautiainen WRC 06
Timo Ford Focus RS
26 56th Uddeholm Swedish Rally 2007
Rautiainen WRC 06
Timo Ford Focus RS
27 4º Supermag Rally Italia Sardinia 2007
Rautiainen WRC 06
54th BP Ultimate Acropolis Rally Timo Ford Focus RS
28 2007
of Greece Rautiainen WRC 06
Timo Ford Focus RS
29 57th Neste Oil Rally Finland 2007
Rautiainen WRC 07
Timo Ford Focus RS
30 37th Propecia Rally New Zealand 2007
Rautiainen WRC 07

[edit] Complete WRC results