Grönholm's father, Ulf "Uffe" Grönholm, was twice Finnish rally champion. Ulf was killed during a practice run for Hankiralli on February 25, 1981, in Kirkkonummi, when Marcus was thirteen years old. Marcus later credited his cousin Sebastian Lindholm, and not his father, as the person who drew him into motorsport. In his teens Grönholm pursued motocross, but a serious knee injury forced a switch to boxing.
Throughout the 1990s Grönholm competed in various WRC rounds, driving Toyota Celicas and Corolla WRCs. Considered a late-bloomer, he did not become a factory driver until his early 30s. A string of fastest stage times on the final day of the Rally Finland brought him to the attention of Ford, Toyota and Peugeot, who all offered him drives. He joined Peugeot in 1999, their first year in the championship.
After an engine failure in the 2000 Monte Carlo season-opener, Grönholm took his first championship win on the Swedish Rally with the 206 WRC. He went on to secure his first WRC title that year, finishing second to Richard Burns in the Rally of Great Britain but accumulating enough points to take the championship. After an unsuccessful title defence in 2001, hampered by mechanical problems that left him fourth, he won his second championship easily in 2002.
In 2003 Peugeot retained the aging 206, now carrying Marlboro livery. Grönholm took three wins in Sweden, New Zealand and Argentina, but fuel pressure problems in Greece, a broken propshaft in Cyprus, and several crashes left him sixth in the championship with 46 points. For 2004 Peugeot introduced the 307, which was plagued by gearbox and power steering failures. After a disqualification in Cyprus for illegal water pumps and further retirements, Grönholm finished fifth with 62 points, publicly saying of the car: "I'm fed up with this car."
For 2005, Peugeot switched from Michelin to Pirelli tyres, and Grönholm gained new teammate Markko Märtin. Two wins came in Finland and Japan; the Japan victory was handed to him when rally leader Petter Solberg crashed on the penultimate stage. Despite tying Solberg on 71 points at season's end, Grönholm was pipped to second place by the Norwegian's superior win count, finishing third. Peugeot withdrew from the championship at the end of the year.
For 2006 Grönholm moved to Ford, driving the new Focus RS WRC. He won his first-ever tarmac rally at the Monte Carlo opener, beating Sébastien Loeb by over a minute on the road, with the Superally regulations converting the result to a win after Loeb's crash. A second win followed in Sweden, but Loeb dominated the remainder of the season. Grönholm won in Greece and Finland, and closed to within one point of the lead when Loeb was injured in a cycling accident and missed four rounds. Grönholm's title bid ended when he rolled out of the Australian penultimate round; Ford secured the manufacturers' title regardless, aided by Grönholm's win in New Zealand ahead of teammate Mikko Hirvonen.
The 2007 season began with third in Monte Carlo and victory in Sweden. After winning in Greece for the 28th time in his career, Grönholm led the championship by nine points over Loeb at the summer break. At the Rally Finland, Ford secured a one-two with Grönholm first and Hirvonen second. At the Rallye Deutschland, Grönholm made an error after being distracted by a cow on the road, dropping to fourth. In New Zealand, Grönholm beat Loeb by 0.3 seconds — the closest winning margin in WRC history — and led by ten points with five rounds to go. Crashes in Japan and Ireland handed the lead back to Loeb; a second place at Wales Rally GB was insufficient, and Grönholm finished the season as runner-up. On September 14, 2007, he announced his retirement, stating: "I wanted to stop while I still had the speed to win rallies."
At a Stockholm press conference on April 16, 2008, Grönholm announced participation in the FIA European Rallycross Championship driving a 560 bhp Ford Fiesta ST for Andréas Eriksson's Ford Team RS Europe. He qualified on pole and won his debut ERC event at Höljes in Sweden on July 6, 2008, in front of 23,400 spectators.
In 2011 and 2012 Grönholm competed in the American Global RallyCross Championship in a 560 bhp Best Buy Ford Fiesta Mk7 prepared by Olsbergs MSE, winning twice overall in the early rounds of 2012. A career-ending injury occurred during practice for the third round at X Games Los Angeles 2012.
Grönholm made limited WRC returns: the 2009 Rally Portugal in a Prodrive-prepared Subaru Impreza WRC2009, where he was running fourth before crashing; the 2010 Rally Sweden in a Ford Focus RS WRC 08 for Team Therminator, finishing 21st after technical troubles; and the 2019 Rally Sweden in a Toyota Gazoo Racing-run Yaris under the GRX Team banner.
Grönholm won the 2002 Race of Champions, taking the Henri Toivonen Memorial Trophy and the title "Champion of Champions". At the 2006 Race of Champions he formed Team Finland with Heikki Kovalainen and the pair won the Nations' Cup. Grönholm and co-driver Timo Rautiainen — who are brothers-in-law — appeared in the first season of Amazing Race Suomi, finishing fifth.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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