Gryazin keeps it cool with Croatia WRC2 victory in sight

In a similar manner to Friday, Gryazin and Rossel dominated proceedings on the broken asphalt stages around Croatia’s capital city Zagreb, despite Rossel losing more than 35sec on the final stage of the morning loop when he picked up tyre damage.

That incident allowed Gryazin to ease up over the remaining stages, knowing that the Citroën pair were more than two minutes clear of Spain's Pepe Lépez, who eventually brought his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 back to overnight service 2min 21sec behind Rossel.

López has everything to drive for on Sunday with Nicolas Ciamin honing in on a podium position. The Hyundai i20 N Rally2 driver sliced his deficit to Lopez from 20.1sec at the beginning of Saturday to just 10.8sec at the end.

Lauri Joona, also behind the wheel of a Fabia RS Rally2, could not match the pace of Ciamin and will now spend Sunday trying to keep fellow Fabia driver Eyvind Brynildsen outside of the top five. Only 11.9sec split the pair.

Moving up one position from Friday was Emil Lindholm. Despite experiencing two spins in his i20 N Rally2, the Finn was able to go by 2024 newcomer Roberto Daprà whilst German Armin Kremer sits ninth overall but with a comfortable lead in the WRC Masters Cup.

Gryazin also leads the WRC2 Challenger Championship for drivers as well as topping the battle for the FORUM8 WRC2 Most Stage Wins award. He has claimed 10 fastest times so far this week compared with Rossel's six.