diff --git a/userspace/marsadm b/userspace/marsadm
index 71afff7b..734a2d3b 100755
--- a/userspace/marsadm
+++ b/userspace/marsadm
@@ -3061,9 +3061,10 @@ sub log_purge_res {
     my $replay = "$basedir/replay-$peer";
     my $target = get_link($replay, 1);
     next unless $target;
-    $situation{$replay} = $target;
     lprint "found replay link '$replay' -> '$target'\n";
+    # only the logfile number is relevant, not the positions
     $target =~ s/,.*//;
+    $situation{$replay} = $target;
     $start_logs{$target}++;
     $start_count++;
     _mark_path_transitive($basedir, $target, $peer);
@@ -3127,6 +3128,8 @@ sub log_purge_res {
   foreach my $replay (sort keys(%situation)) {
     my $old_situation = $situation{$replay};
     my $target = get_link($replay, 1);
+    # only the logfile number is relevant, not the positions
+    $target =~ s/,.*//;
     if (!$target || $target ne $old_situation) {
       lwarn "Race on '$replay' -> '$target' instead of '$old_situation'\n";
       $nr_races++;
@@ -3135,6 +3138,7 @@ sub log_purge_res {
   if ($nr_races) {
     if ($max_retry-- > 0) {
       lwarn "Restarting due to $nr_races races\n";
+      sleep(1);
       goto retry;
     }
     ldie "Detected $nr_races, the situation is not stable\n";