Grönholm celebrates best rally result to-date with podium performance

FIA World Rallycross Championship front-runner Niclas Grönholm produced his finest rallying performance to-date last weekend – and he was rewarded with a podium finish.

Behind the wheel of an upgraded Škoda Fabia Rally2 and navigated by his father Marcus Grönholm’s former FIA World Rally Championship-winning co-driver, Timo Rautiainen, the Finn was in the mix throughout the SM Tuuri Ralli, round three of the 2024 Finnish Rally Championship.

Progressively increasing his pace, Grönholm went fastest of all on the final stage of the event to cement a second-place finish behind Roope Korhonen, the reigning WRC3 world champion and a top ten finisher outright on Rally Sweden last month.

“I’m very satisfied,” the 27-year-old Kauniainen native reflected of his first rostrum result in rallying. “I felt like it was a genuine step forward over previous events and that I was much more in my element.

“While I’m still not completely happy with my driving, with too many mistakes costing me time, I generally felt more in control and less apprehensive going into corners where I didn’t know what was on the other side.

“The new Škoda is clearly a considerable improvement over the previous-generation Fabia I was in before, even if we still have some work to do to properly adapt the set-up to my driving style. Overall, there were a lot of positives to take away from the event – and at the end of the day, a podium is always a good result.”