Although seeded number one for the event the magic number three had its imprint all over the Peugeot driver’s rally as not only was it his third all asphalt event of his ERC season but it was also three years since he last competed there.
The coincidence continued when Craig and his co-driver Scott Martin qualified their Peugeot 208T16 third on Friday morning’s 4.4 kilometres qualifying stage allowing them third choice at the road order selection ceremony and they chose as they qualified, choosing third on the road.
As is traditional with Rally Zlin it got underway with the first stage being run through the city on Friday night where it was watched by some 20,000 enthusiastic spectators that lined the streets amidst a carnival atmosphere.
Craig posted third fastest time on stage one which saw him start the first full day of rallying in third place overall perfectly poised to launch an attack on his fellow ERC drivers.
He arrived at the end of SS2 with a smile on his face; his time reflected his enjoyment just 6.3 seconds down on the stage winner and Craig’s Peugeot Rally Academy team-mate Kevin Abbring, but more importantly his main championship rival Esapekka Lappi was a further 0.8 seconds down. So hot was the pace through SS3 that even though Craig was just 0.9 seconds off the stage winning time of Abbring he was only fifth fastest and entered service in Otrokovice still third overall, 11.8 seconds behind rally leader Abbring and a mere 1.3 seconds off Lappi.
SS4 was eventful with Abbring and Lappi forced to retire from the rally but then Craig arrived at stage end showing a time deficit and impact damage to the right side of his Peugeot 208T16. A small mistake on a left hand bend forced him to swerve right to avoid a pole but he consequentially entered a field and struck a tree with the right side of the car. Even though he made it to the end of SS4, the impact damage to his 208T16 was too great to continue and he was forced to retire.
Rally Result: 1.Pech, 2.Wiegand, 3.Kostka, 4.Orsak, 5.Tarabus
You can keep up to date with Craig’s FIA ERC 2014 campaign by visitingwww.craigbreen.com or www.peugeot-sport.com
