Rossel doubles up with WRC2 triumph in Croatia

The Frenchman assumed control in the premier support category on Friday’s opening stage and never faltered in his Citroën C3. He did, however, come under pressure from Škoda Fabia RS driver Nikolay Gryazin, who ate into his lead on Saturday afternoon.

The pair entered Sunday’s four-stage finale just 11.5sec apart but Rossel, who also won the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo, delivered a faultless drive to keep his rival 16.1sec behind.

Emil Lindholm fought back from a broken transmission linkage on Friday to complete the podium in his Fabia. The Finn was a hefty 1min11.4sec adrift of the front-running pair, although he did have 51.0sec in hand over fourth-placed Adrien Fourmaux.

Fourmaux, who was hampered by a throttle issue early in the event, leapfrogged Škoda Sami Pajari in Sunday’s second stage to claim the position, while Gus Greensmith completed the top six in his similar car.