Breen claims fourth spot at Rally Croatia

After an exciting weekend in Zagreb, the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team narrowly missed out on their third podium result of the season, with Waterford man Craig Breen taking fourth place overall on one of the trickiest asphalt events in recent years.

M-Sport Ford’s fleet of four Puma Rally1s fought against unprecedented conditions in Zagreb this weekend, all crews showing the true pace of the all-new car on asphalt over the course of the event. After heavy rain and low temperatures created some exceptional road conditions, any crew that finished the event did exceptionally well and M-Sport were rewarded with three out of four cars crossing the finish line on Sunday afternoon. The highlight of the weekend was seeing Craig Breen’s strong result elevating him to third in the drivers’ championship.

Breen and Paul Nagle showed a consistently strong performance from start to finish, setting the third-fastest time in SS1 on Friday morning and going on to set a further 10 top five fastest times throughout the rest of the weekend. Friday saw the Irishman end the day in fourth position, but a late-night penalty for Neuville saw Breen elevated into third by a margin of 28.8 seconds. Saturday saw Breen hold onto third place, the duo expertly navigating the poor visibility and very wet roads to make it through the stages with no issues, and head into the final day with a podium in sight, but their gap to fourth place had been cut down to 4.9 seconds.

The crew started Sunday positively, losing only 0.4 seconds to Belgian Neuville, but then drama would start to unfold. Unexpected heavy rain on the penultimate stage saw the crew’s tyre choice become a big disadvantage to the competition, seeing them lose over a minute and a half to Neuville. They would head into the final Power Stage with little chance to fight for the final podium position. A late scare for Neuville was not enough to capture one of the top steps, but their committed drive on the final test saw them rewarded with an additional two drivers’ Power Stage points.

Breen, said:
“Obviously the weather made it an incredibly difficult weekend, but we made it through. For sure Paul and I learnt a lot, plus we managed to get some points in the power stage, and points for coming fourth. Unfortunately, a little mistake on the tyre choice on Sunday morning maybe ruled us out of a podium place, but apart from that we have to be satisfied.”

Rich Millener, Team Principal, said:
“I think we should be happy with some elements of our weekend. Craig has another strong finish seeing him lifted to third in the drivers’ championship, but the unfortunate punctures for both Gus and Pierre saw them unable to show the true potential of their speed. This weekend has seen the crews face some of the craziest conditions in the WRC for a long while, so I think getting points on the board is important for us as a team. We all know we need to improve in Portugal, but I think it’s an event all our drivers like, so for now, I would like to thank all the Croatian fans and organisers for another great running of this, quickly becoming iconic, event.”