Breen claims second place finish at Rally Estonia

One year after his heroics at Rally Estonia, Craig Breen has once again captured second place at the event.

In 2020 it was the hometown boy Ott Tanak who denied Breen top-spot on the podium, and this year it was the Finn Kalle Rovanpera who reached the summit.

The overall standing hardly changed for the duration of the event, with Breen chasing Rovanpera from the first stage.

Wrapping up the first day's racing on Friday Breen said “I am very happy with what we’ve achieved today. It’s been a really nice day and we are definitely in the mix. Paul [Nagle] has been awesome in the co-driver’s seat and the car has been amazing all day. The feeling of driving these cars on roads like this is something very special, and even more so this year because the second pass stood up really well. I’ve had a good ding-dong with Kalle all day, it’s a nice fight. It still doesn’t quite feel like home, certainly when you consider these guys are in the WRC cars each event, whereas I am more used to driving the R5. But we have finished today well, and we’ll try to carry this good rhythm into Saturday, with the first two stages completely new.”

The 20-year-old Finn, who now calls Estonia home, distanced Craig Breen through nine super-fast gravel tests near Tartu to extend his advantage from 8.5sec to 50.7sec with just one day remaining of this seventh round.

The pair fought tooth and nail in Friday's opening leg, but Rovanperä took control today. He made a sensational start in his Toyota Yaris, winning the opening Peipsiääre speed test and beating third-fastest Breen by 14.3sec.

His advantage climbed to 35.7sec by mid-leg service after four stages and Rovanperä enjoyed the luxury of a measured approach during the afternoon's dusty and heavily rutted repeats.

"Yesterday the time gaps were small, but today we could make them much bigger," said a delighted Rovanperä. "I was preparing a lot for the first stage. I knew it can be a stage where you can make a big difference and we made a good effort there.

"We still had so many kilometres left that you can't really ease off, but after that I could be a bit more sensible."

After day two, Breen commented that“We have completed the day relatively unscathed, and I think we can be happy with what we’ve achieved. Given our experience, it was always going to be tough, but we’ve tried to feel more comfortable in the car. It still feels a bit alien at times, and we haven’t been able to let it go full banzai. We have to realistic and happy; it’s been a good weekend so far. The splits on the faster sections have been good, it’s in the narrower parts where we need to gain additional confidence. These things take time and ultimately when you’re rallying with people who have been in the car week-in, week-out, it’s tough."