Double rally world champion Marcus Grönholm to quit WRC after this season

Decision matured over the summer

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Finnish rally ace Marcus Grönholm, 39, has finally put an end to the prolonged speculations regarding his driving career. Grönholm will retire from the sport after this season.
     
The double World Champion (2000, 2002) will leave the circuit - possibly as a triple World Champion - after the Wales Rally GB, which will be raced at the beginning of December.
      In other words, Grönholm hopes to retire while on top of his game.
      "Ultimately you reach the point, where you feel that you can no longer give 110 per cent of yourself. And that is what you have to do if you want to race at the highest level. Now that I have decided to quit, I can concentrate on the remaining races free from needless disturbing factors", Grönholm commented over the phone from Corsica, where he is currently testing his Ford WRC car.
     
Though there has been speculation about his retirement for some time now, Grönholm confirms that the final decision was anything but easy.
      "It took me the whole summer. I went back and forth. It was a difficult decision to make, as I have done this job for so many years now and I have loved it", Grönholm said.
      Even though the Finn plans to shake the dust of the World Rally Championship circuit off his feet, he will hardly retire to a life of idleness back home in Inkoo in Southern Finland.
      In some capacity he may even be seen in the world of motor sports.
      "One of the main reasons behind the decision to quit was my desire to spend more time with my wife and my children", the father of three explains.
      Furthermore, there are plenty of chores to be taken care of around the shopping centre that the Grönholms have had built in Inkoo.
     
Grönholm took part in his first-ever World Rally Championship event back in 1989. Since then he has competed with five different factory teams: a few races with Toyota, Seat, and Mitsubishi, and entire seasons with Peugeot and Ford.
      With his 30 world championship race victories Grönholm is in second place in the list of all-time rally wins. This season Grönholm has topped the podium five times and leads the driver’s championship table by ten points from the Frenchman Sebastien Loeb (Citroën), with five races remaining.
      "Ford would have wanted me to continue, but the team respects my decision", Grönholm adds.
     
In recent years the duels between Grönholm and Loeb have been the salt of the WRC circus.
      One immediate ramification of Grönholm’s announcement was the start of speculations as to who would accompany Mikko Hirvonen in the Ford team in the coming season. The names of Finn Jari-Matti Latvala from Ford’s number two team and the Norwegian Petter Solberg from Subaru have both been suggested.
      Grönholm was not alone in his announcement of retirement. His co-pilot Timo Rautiainen followed suit.
      "I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to experience both the highs and the lows of Grönholm’s rallying career and to win two World Championship titles with him", Rautiainen writes on the Finnish-language section of Grönholm’s website.
      The next WRC competition will be raced in Catalonia in Spain on October 5th.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Grönholm takes Rally New Zealand by narrowest of margins (3.9.2007)

Links:
  WRC
  Marcus Grönholm Rallying

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