WRC 2 in Sweden Østberg pulls clear of Pro rivals

Mads Østberg is on course to seal a maiden WRC 2 Pro victory at Rally Sweden after another trouble-free day in his Citroën C3.

Mads Østberg is on course to seal a maiden WRC 2 Pro victory at Rally Sweden after another trouble-free day in his Citroën C3.
With three stages remaining, the Norwegian has a lead of 3m21.8s over Kalle Rovanperä, despite feeling uncomfortable with his car's handling on Saturday's snow and slush-covered roads.
Østberg approached the event like a test to try and find a more confidence-inspiring set-up. But as those around him hit trouble, he was left in a class of his own.
Rovanperä was the quickest man of the day, winning seven of the eight stages in a Skoda Fabia. A hat-trick of fastest times in the morning enabled him to slash Østberg's advantage to less than a minute, but a trip into a snow bank in SS13 dropped him 2m30s away.
Ford Fiesta driver Gus Greensmith is third, 58.1sec behind Rovanperä, after a day blighted by power steering failure and a broken rear differential.
Almost two minutes further back in fourth is 2018 Finnish champion Eerik Pietarinen, who won SS13 as he fought to recover time lost on Friday.
Restarting after crashing into a tree on Friday, Lucasz Pieniazek is a distant fifth. The Pole suffered a broken damper in the morning and lost five minutes stuck in a snow back in SS13.
WRC 2
Norway's Ole Christian Veiby holds a 15sec lead in WRC 2 after repelling a strong challenge from Jari Huttunen.
Veiby won Friday's opening stage in his VW Polo to extend his overnight lead to 30.9sec before closest rival, team-mate Johan Kristoffersson, got stuck in a snow bank in SS10 and plunged to fifth.
That promoted Skoda driver Huttunen to second, and started an exciting two-way fight for the remaining stage wins. Veiby claimed two more, while Huttunen claimed four to narrow Veiby's advantage ahead of Sunday's three stages.
Emil Lindholm is third in another Polo, 1m20.2s behind Huttunen, with Emil Bergkvist fourth in a Ford Fiesta.
Kristoffersson is fifth, 16.9sec further back, with Nikolay Gryazin just 15.9sec behind in sixth.
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