The Finn had the good fortune to roll back on to his wheels and only lost 35 seconds to then second-placed Estonian Markko Martin in his Ford Focus by the end of the stage in the hamlet of Parahi.
After stage 16, world champion Gronholm had a lead of exactly one minute over his British team mate Richard Burns after Martin had been forced to retire with engine trouble on stage 14.
“Today has been good, apart from the mistake on one stage (the 13th). I was too quick into a junction and bang, there were only two spectators there, so it took time to get going again. I’m happy and quite confident about tomorrow.”
Third was Norwegian Petter Solberg in a Subaru Impreza, one minute 50.7 seconds behind the leader. Frenchman Sebastian Loeb in a Citroen was fourth, just ahead of Belgian Freddy Loix in a Hyundai.
Stage 14 proved expensive for Finn Harri Rovanpera who rolled out of the race in his Peugeot. Fellow Finn Kristian Sohlberg also went off, although he managed to continue.
To cap an incident-packed day a small fire broke out and officials abandoned stage 14 for the later drivers.
Leading positions after 16 stages:
1. Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugoet 2 hours 42 minutes 43.7 seconds; 2. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugoet 1 minute 00.9 seconds behind; 3. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru 1:50.7; 4. Sebastian Loeb (France) Citroen 2:23.7; 5. Freddy Loix (Belgium) Hyundai 5:51.6; 6. Alister McRae (Britain) Mitsubishi 6:28.8; 7. Toni Gardemeister (Finland) Skoda 6:33.5; 8. Didier
Auriol (France) Skoda 7:45.7; 9.
Tommy Makinen (Finland) Subaru 8:39.2; 10. Francois Duval (France) Ford 8:39.2.—Reuters