Raikkonen, Gronholm Experience Trouble in Rally Sweden - SS6

The 6th special stage of the Rally Sweden this weekend was not a lucky one for Finnish drivers Marcus Gronholm and Kimi Raikkonen. While both inside the overall Top 10 at the start of the stage, mechanical troubles with the car (Gronholm) and an unfortunate incident on the road (Raikkonen) pushed them far away from point contention for the rest of the event.

Raikkonen's Citroen C4 WRC stalled during SS6, after the Finn reportedly hit a snow bank in the running (as reported by Autosport). Although the former F1 driver eventually managed to start the car and continue the stage, it eventually stopped again a few kilometers away.

We're still waiting for additional information on his further participation in Rally Sweden, but we're guessing he will probably miss the entire day today (or rejoin for the night superspecial, due to start at 8.00 PM, local time) and return to action on the super-rally rules by Citroen.

As for Gronholm, the Finnish driver who returned to WRC action in a Stobart-prepared Ford Focus RS WRC lost more than 10 minutes during SS6 after his car suffered some electrical issues. It took the former world champion plenty of time to fix it, but he eventually managed to get back on the road and finished the stage 12.31 minutes off pace from winner Jari-Matti Latvala.

Gronholm dropped no less than 23 positions in the overall classification, where he is now 29th. The standings are still led by Mikko Hirvonen, ahead by more than 5 seconds from Citroen's Sebastien Loeb and 6.5 seconds from Dani Sordo. There will be two more stages of running on Friday, one of which will happen at night.