Gronholm sweats on Stage 7

Sweden Rally leader Marcus Gronholm was made to sweat on the opening stage of Leg 2 of the event on Saturday when he damaged his steering after hitting something. The Finn was able to continue, setting the third best time on the stage. Here's the reactions at service....

Marcus Gronholm: "At the start of the stage I hit a hole or a stone and broke the toe-in on the car. The steering was at a strange angle and the car was quite difficult to drive. At first I thought it might be a really big problem, but then I realised we could carry on OK. The problem was that half the studs came out because the front wheels were not straight – nobody else had any studs missing!"

Tommi Makinen: "Yes, everything is fine. I perhaps started a little too slowly on that stage (SS7) as I was concentrating too much on preserving the tyres. Although there was a lot more gravel than yesterday, I perhaps took it too steady. But, by the end of the stage we were gaining time and going very fast."

Harri Rovanpera: "We are having a big push now. The car feels good and I am confident as well. There were no problems or mistakes and I think the warmer conditions make the surfaces slightly easier to drive."

Richard Burns: "I'm just trying very hard to see what I can do: I'm not thinking about my team mates. The long stage was much better for me today than it was yesterday. The temperatures are warmer, which means that the levels of grip are more consistent. You notice it especially under braking"

Markko Martin: "That was a pretty good start! Our road position today is much better and we're not suffering by having to clean the fresh snow from the road as we did yesterday. As a result we had a lot more grip and conditions were much more like a proper Swedish Rally. More grip brought more speed and also more jumps, although it was still quite slippery towards the end of the stage."

Petter Solberg: "I'm trying my best. It is better today than yesterday. But it's still difficult to get a good feeling with the car. I do well in every rally in the championship but I have never done well in Sweden. It's getting better now. Tommi is pushing really hard so the car must be good. It must just be me."

Colin McRae - Co-driver Derek Ringer said: "The conditions were quite difficult as it was a bit foggy and visibility was a bit tricky, but we had quite a clean run and quite a good time. Obviously we had a bad day yesterday, so we're just trying our best to consolidate and see if we can get some points."

Carlos Sainz: "That stage wasn't so good for us. I think we just need to get more confidence and time in the car. There's many things we've still got to work on. But I'm quite confident that as this rally progresses, we can improve."