Gronholm ready for rally comeback

Marcus Gronholm is looking forward to his WRC comeback at Rally Portugal, following a successful pre-event test in his new Prodrive Impreza World Rally Car.

"I have the same feeling I had when I last drove competitively nearly 18 months ago," said Gronholm. "The test was good, the car ran well and we made some improvements to the set up of the car. All I have to do now is to remember how to make my pace notes!"

Gronholm today finished a 200 km, two day test in Spain near the Portuguese border, in which he refined the set up of his car, finalising the differential and suspension settings he will use for next week's shakedown. The car will now be transported to Faro, where Prodrive will rebuild it ready for the rally.

Prodrive will be running Gronholm alongside Mads Ostberg in the Adapta World Rally Team service area. Ostberg is also competing in a Prodrive Impreza WRC2008 at Rally Portugal. He shared today's second day of testing with Marcus and has chosen a near identical set-up to the two-times word rally champion.

"We had a very good day of testing. I am really happy with the final set up we achieved and I have good confidence in the car," said Ostberg.

In addition to Ostberg, Prodrive will also be supporting 2006 Production World Rally Champion, Nasser Al Attiyah, who is competing at Rally Portugal in the new Prodrive Impreza N2009 with the Barwa World Rally Team.

-credit: prodrive.com/wrc