Better late than never

Gronholm was outstanding in New Zealand

Remarkable as it may sound, Marcus Gronholm was not even sure to do a full world rally championship programme at the start of this year, and yet he is likely to finish it as world champion.

It is a remarkable turnaround for a man who was making his living as a farmer in his native Finland as recently as 1996. Yet there is no doubt that this rallying Cinderella deserves his place at the ball.

Gronholm, now 32, has proved this year at the wheel of the Peugeot 206 that he is every inch world champion material.

To see the form he has produced at events on which he has a fraction of the experience of some of his rivals is to wonder that no one has given him the chance to prove himself before.

Gronholm has withstood the pressure amazingly well

While Finland is world famous as a breeding ground for future rallying stars, the country's conveyor belt of success seemed to have passed Gronholm by. That is all the more remarkable when it is considered that his father, Ulf, was one of the leading rally drivers of the 1970s.

Gronholm junior grew up in Helsinki, away from the rallying proving ground of Jyvaskyla, and so he was missed as his peers were catapulted into the big time.

But in a few short months Gronholm has leapfrogged ahead of them, and all because he was in the right place at the right time.

Through the 1990s, the only man who showed faith in him was Ove Andersson, the boss of the now-defunct Toyota rally team.

Only man available

The Swede gave Gronholm a few rides when he could, but while Gronholm dominated the Finnish national championship through the last decade, he drove only 25 world championship rallies in the 10 years from 1989-98.

What that meant, though, was that when Peugeot was looking for a driver with experience of driving on gravel when it was putting together its return to the WRC, Gronholm was the only man available. A limited programme in 1999 was tempting for the likes of Colin McRae and Richard Burns, but not tempting enough.

After the Peugeot 206 had proved fast but fragile in that first season of competition, those in the know were tempted to put a quiet bet on Gronholm for the title this year.

But at the start of the season Peugeot had not even decided whether to give him a full programme.

Gronholm has been strong on every type of rally

It was only Gronholm's results in the first few events of the year - when he won second time out in Sweden and then pushed Burns all the way in Portugal - that convinced the team it was worth taking him to every rally.

Gronholm has been a revelation. He has proved to be quick not only on gravel, where he was expected to be, but also on asphalt.

And his pace on events where he has limited experience - particularly in New Zealand, where he was awesome in taking his second win of the year - has been just as impressive.

He has also utterly dominated his two French team-mates, Francois Delecour and Gilles Panizzi. As a Finn in a fiercely French team, that must take some doing.

At every turn, in fact, Gronholm has silenced the doubters. He has simply kept his head down and got on with it.

He was expected to struggle in the Corsican and San Remo rallies, which are traditionally dominated by experienced asphalt specialists, but he came out of them with his championship lead extended.

Confounding the sceptics

He was expected to crack under the pressure of a three-way assault on his lead by rallying giants Burns, McRae and Carlos Sainz. But McRae nearly killed himself in Corsica, where Burns also crashed, and Sainz goes around under a perpetual black cloud.

And he went into the last day of the Rally Australia in the supposedly disadvantageous leading position, and still managed to beat Richard Burns, who started behind him, and extend his championship lead.

Before anyone writes off his chances on the Rally GB on the grounds of inexperience, it is worth remembering that the nearest challenger to Burns on last year's event was not McRae but Gronholm.

And that is yet more evidence of just how good is the man who is almosty certain to be crowned world champion in 2000.