Mads Østberg made the ideal start to his WRC2 return by opening up a slender lead in the category on Friday at the Croatia Rally. He claimed four stage wins to round out Friday’s leg with a 7.8sec advantage. They are very tricky conditions out there, so we are basically trying to manage our day. The Finn spent a heart-stopping 30sec trying to reverse out and ended the day 44.7sec behind Gryazin in third. He was able to continue, but trailed the leaders by 39min 34.3sec at the end of the day. The young Swede was forced to stop in the penultimate stage after a rock damaged the radiator on his Fiesta.

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