Marcus Grönholm
Marcus Grönholm is a Finnish rally driver, born in Kauniainen on 1968-02-05. Two wrc world titles is the short version of the record; the long version, season by season, is below.
Marcus Grönholm: Career Record And Results At A Glance
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name | Marcus Grönholm |
| Born | 1968-02-05 — Kauniainen |
| Nationality | Finland |
| Discipline | rally driver |
| Honours | Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland |
| Stories in the last 30 days | 0 |
Those fields are Wikidata claims. Each carries its own item identifier, so any of them can be re-checked at source. A missing field means neither source holds it. Nothing here is estimated.
Marcus Grönholm Career Wins On Record
22 wins are listed on the career record. Those 22 wins are given as they appear in the source — event, season and co-driver where a co-driver applies — rather than summarised into a career total, because a summarised total is the kind of number that goes quietly out of date. The results below are the record itself — each win, the season it was won in, and the co-driver alongside him for it. A career of 22 wins reads differently depending on how many starts it took, which is why the season results follow rather than a standalone win total.
| Season | Team | Starts | Victories | Podiums | Stage wins | DNF | Points | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Private | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 1990 | Private | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | NC |
| 1991 | Private | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 1992 | Finnish Junior Rally Team | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 1993 | Private | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 65th |
| 1994 | Private | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 19th |
| 1995 | Private | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | NC |
| 1996 | Private | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10th |
| 1997 | Toyota Castrol Team | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 12th |
| 1998 | H.F. Grifone | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 16th |
| 1999 | Peugeot Esso | 5 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 15th |
| 2000 | Peugeot Esso | 14 | 4 | 7 | 42 | 4 | 65 | 1st |
| 2001 | Peugeot Total | 14 | 3 | 4 | 34 | 8 | 36 | 4th |
| 2002 | Peugeot Total | 14 | 5 | 9 | 69 | 2 | 77 | 1st |
| 2003 | Marlboro Peugeot Total | 14 | 3 | 4 | 50 | 6 | 46 | 6th |
| 2004 | Marlboro Peugeot Total | 16 | 1 | 5 | 71 | 5 | 62 | 5th |
| 2005 | Marlboro Peugeot Total | 16 | 2 | 8 | 55 | 6 | 71 | 3rd |
| 2006 | BP Ford World Rally Team | 16 | 7 | 12 | 124 | 1 | 111 | 2nd |
| 2007 | BP Ford World Rally Team | 16 | 5 | 12 | 76 | 2 | 112 | 2nd |
| 2009 | Prodrive | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | NC |
| 2010 | Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 2019 | GRX Team | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
Marcus Grönholm Career Results, Season By Season
Marcus Grönholm season by season from 1989 to 2019: which team, which car, and where each campaign finished. On the rally side the columns are the individual rounds, so a blank means he did not start that event and a number means he did. Wins, podiums and championship positions are in the same table rather than summarised above it.
| Year | Title | Car |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Finnish champion ( Group N ) | Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165 |
| 1994 | Finnish champion ( Group A ) | Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD |
| 1996 | Finnish champion (Group A) | Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 |
| 1997 | Finnish champion (Group A) | Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 |
| 1998 | Finnish champion (Group A) | Toyota Corolla WRC / Toyota Celica GT-Four |
| 2000 | World Rally Champion | Peugeot 206 WRC |
| 2002 | World Rally Champion | Peugeot 206 WRC |
| 2002 | Champion of Champions | Varies |
| Year | Entrant | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Marcus Grönholm | Lancia Delta Integrale | SWE | MON | POR | KEN | FRA | GRC | NZL | ARG | FIN 23 | AUS | ITA |
| 1990 | Marcus Grönholm | Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165 | MON | POR | KEN | FRA | GRC | NZL | ARG | FIN Ret | AUS | ITA | CIV |
| 1991 | Marcus Grönholm | Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165 | MON | SWE | POR | KEN | FRA | GRC | NZL | ARG | FIN 13 | AUS | ITA |
| 1992 | Finnish Junior Rally Team | Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165 | MON | SWE Ret | POR | KEN | FRA | GRC | NZL | ARG | NC | 0 | |
| 1993 | Marcus Grönholm | Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD | MON | SWE | POR | KEN | FRA | GRC | ARG | NZL | FIN 10 | AUS | ITA |
| 1994 | Marcus Grönholm | Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD | MON | POR | KEN | FRA | GRC | ARG | NZL | FIN 5 | ITA | GBR | |
| 1995 | Marcus Grönholm | Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD | MON | SWE Ret | FRA | NZL Ret | AUS | ESP | GBR | – | 0 | ||
| 1996 | Marcus Grönholm | Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD | SWE 7 | KEN | IDN | GRC | ARG | 10th | 14 | ||||
| 1997 | Toyota Castrol Team Sweden | Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 | MON | SWE 8 | KEN | 12th | 5 | ||||||
| 1998 | H.F. Grifone | Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 | MON | SWE 5 | KEN | 16th | 2 | ||||||
| 1999 | SEAT Sport | SEAT Córdoba WRC | MON | SWE Ret | KEN | 15th | 5 | ||||||
| 2000 | Peugeot Esso | Peugeot 206 WRC | MON Ret | SWE 1 | KEN Ret | POR 2 | ESP 5 | ARG 2 | GRC Ret | NZL 1 | FIN 1 | CYP Ret | FRA 5 |
| 2001 | Peugeot Total | Peugeot 206 WRC | MON Ret | SWE Ret | POR 3 | ESP Ret | ARG Ret | CYP Ret | GRC Ret | KEN Ret | FIN 1 | NZL 5 | ITA 7 |
Ascension to the world stage
Marcus Grönholm's involvement in rallying built upon a familial foundation, though not directly from his father, Ulf Grönholm, a two-time Finnish champion who died in 1981. Instead, his cousin, Sebastian Lindholm, a fellow rally driver and future Peugeot teammate, influenced his path. Grönholm initially pursued motocross, but a significant knee injury prompted a change in his sporting focus.
His progression in rallying during the 1990s saw him take on various roles within the World Rally Championship, notably driving Toyota Celicas and Corolla WRCs. Grönholm was considered a late bloomer in the sport, not securing a factory drive until his early thirties. His breakthrough came after a series of fastest stage times as a privateer on the final day of Rally Finland, which attracted attention from factory teams like Ford, Toyota, and Peugeot.
He ultimately joined Peugeot for the 1999 season. This marked a pivotal moment, as the manufacturer was new to the championship, and it was with this team that Grönholm's career truly began to accelerate.
Dominance and near misses
Grönholm's first WRC victory came at the Swedish Rally in 2000, driving the Peugeot 206 WRC, following an engine failure at Monte Carlo. Subsequent wins, including his home event, propelled him to his first championship title, overcoming Subaru's Richard Burns. After an unsuccessful 2001 season, marred by mechanical issues, he secured his second World Rally Championship in 2002.
The 2003 and 2004 seasons presented new challenges with the aging Peugeot 206 and the problematic new Peugeot 307, respectively. Despite three wins in 2003 and a victory in Finland in 2004, reliability issues with the 307, including gearbox and power steering problems, hampered his championship campaigns. A notable incident in 2004 saw him and teammate Harri Rovanperä disqualified from the Cyprus Rally for illegal water pumps, despite Grönholm initially believing he had secured the 307's first win.
In 2006, Grönholm moved to Ford, driving the Focus RS WRC. He won on his debut at Monte Carlo and followed this with a victory in Sweden. He secured additional wins in Greece and Finland. He concluded the 2006 season in second place, one point behind Sébastien Loeb. The 2007 season, his final full year, also saw him finish second in the championship, this time four points adrift of Loeb. Highlights included a victory in New Zealand by a mere 0.3 seconds, the closest margin in WRC history. Grönholm announced his retirement from full-time rallying on September 14, 2007, stating his desire to stop while still competitive.
Post-WRC engagements and legacy
Beyond his WRC career, Grönholm achieved success in other motorsport disciplines. He won the Race of Champions in 2002, earning the "Champion of Champions" title. In 2006, he and Heikki Kovalainen secured the Nations' Cup for Finland at the same event.
Grönholm also ventured into rallycross. In 2008, he participated in a limited program of the FIA European Championships for Rallycross Drivers (ERC) with Andréas Eriksson's Ford Team RS Europe. He won on his ERC debut at Höljes, Sweden. He then competed in the American Global RallyCross Championship (GRC) in 2011 and 2012 for Olsbergs MSE, winning the first two events of the 2012 season. His rallycross career ended with an injury during practice for an X Games event in 2012.
Grönholm made brief returns to the WRC after his official retirement. In 2009, he contested Rally Portugal in a Prodrive-prepared Subaru Impreza WRC2009, crashing out on Saturday. He also participated in the 2010 Rally Sweden, driving a Ford Focus RS WRC 08 for Team Therminator, finishing 21st after experiencing technical problems and a puncture. In 2019, he competed in the World Rally Championship with a Toyota Yaris WRC under the GRX Team banner. He was appointed a Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland. As of August 2026, his son, Niclas Grönholm, is a driver in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, continuing the family's involvement in motorsport. Marcus Grönholm holds the third position in all-time WRC rally wins with 30 victories.
Every Driver From The Same Country Racing In 2026
11 of them are contesting a professional championship this season. This is the field a driver is measured against at home, and where his own career sits in it. The bars are 30-day story counts from our own tracking: they show how much attention a driver is getting, not how quick he is.
| Driver | Series | Team | Stories, 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sami Pajari | WRC | Toyota | 39 |
| Valtteri Bottas | F1 | Cadillac | 28 |
| Teemu Suninen | ERC/WRC2 | Hyundai | 16 |
| Kalle Rovanperä | single-seaters/GT | – | 9 |
| Esapekka Lappi | WRC | Hyundai | 9 |
| Tuukka Taponen | FIA F3 | Ferrari Driver Academy | 7 |
| Jari-Matti Latvala | WRC | Toyota (team principal) | 5 |
| Roope Korhonen | WRC junior | – | 2 |
| Marcus Amand | Porsche Supercup | – | 2 |
| Lauri Joona | WRC2 | – | 2 |
| Emil Lindholm | WRC2 | – | 1 |
Finland's World Rally Champions
Finland has produced more World Rally Championship drivers' titles than any other country, and the list is short enough to give in full. Every name here has a page on this site.
| Driver | Titles | Record on this site |
|---|---|---|
| Juha Kankkunen | 4 (1986, 1987, 1991, 1993) | four WRC world titles |
| Tommi Mäkinen | 4 (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999) | four WRC world titles |
| Marcus Grönholm | 2 (2000, 2002) | two WRC world titles |
| Kalle Rovanperä | 2 (2022, 2023) | two WRC world titles |
| Ari Vatanen | 1 (1981) | 1981 WRC world champion |
| Timo Salonen | 1 (1985) | 1985 WRC world champion |
Marcus Grönholm holds 2 titles on that list. Six drivers are on it against one Finn currently in Formula 1, and six more are contesting the World Rally Championship this season. That is the ratio this site has to be built around, and it is why the rally desk is not a sideline to the F1 desk.
Teams Marcus Grönholm Has Driven For
The structured record here does not carry a team list for this driver, so none is given rather than assembled from memory. The season-by-season results table above names the entrant for each of his campaigns, which is the same information in a form that can be checked.
Following Marcus Grönholm Through The 2026 Season
Our Finnish drivers desk covers every round he contests. The 2026 calendar carries each session in Helsinki time. His results land in the results archive.
Marcus Grönholm is one of the drivers tracked on the driver index. Start there for the whole picture: one on the Formula 1 grid and six in the World Rally Championship — a ratio that would have looked absurd twenty years ago. The junior ladder is where the next ones come from.
Every driver page here is generated from the same record, so the figures are comparable across them. The method is set out in the editorial policy, and the desk that maintains these pages is the Finnish Desk.
Career fields are Wikidata claims (birth date, birthplace, teams, honours) and the results tables are the career-statistics tables from the same entity's reference article, source. Formula 1 career totals are from our own Finnish F1 dataset; 2026 finishes are the official classification via the Jolpica Ergast mirror. Checked 26 August 2026. Where a figure is absent it is because the record does not carry it.