Breen takes third in FAI European Rally Championship

For Peugeot Rally Academy driver Craig Breen the third trip of his career to the island of Corsica for the legendary Tour de Corse Rally (Nov 6-8) had every expectation to be his best yet.

After learning what it takes to master the island's narrow twisty tarmac stages on two previous occasions, it was the perfect opportunity for him and his co-driver Scott martin to put their bad luck of the 2014 season behind them. Fresh from a confidence building second place finish in Switzerland, Craig was determined to take the top step of the podium again for the first time since his debut ERC win on the Acropolis Rally back in March and even before the really started, he was covering all his options.

Because road order in Corsica is not as important as on some of the other championship rounds, Craig selected to run on a harder compound tyre for the short qualifying test on Thursday and by sacrificing time along with road position choice he hoped it would more than reward the risk to have the same tyres on his Peugeot 208T16 for the demanding long abrasive stages of leg one.

Although sunshine greeted the crews on Friday a humid morning left the surface of the smooth opening stage a little slippier than expected and Craig posted fifth fastest time 5.2 seconds behind Stephane Sarrazin in his more powerful RRC spec machine. It was clear after SS2 that Sarrazin and fellow Frenchman Bryan Bouffier in another RRC were going to be the men for the Peugeot Rally Academy driver to beat for victory when the pair finished the 26.11km stage on exactly the same time some 6.8 seconds ahead of Craig. It was on SS3 that Craig hit transmission trouble that the Peugeot Rally Academy team could not fix in the thirty minute service that followed. Craig started the next stage but he could only manage sixth fastest time and was forced to retire for the day, his only hope that the team would be able to repair the car with the benefit of more time and thus enable him to re-start for Leg two the next day.

Saturday saw Craig and Scott take to the remaining five stages in the repaired 208T16 and although they were not able to figure in the overall results they overcame a puncture and intercom problems to post a number of top three stage times.

The rally finish marked the end of the FIA European Rally Championship 2014 of which Craig finishes third in the standings even after an unlucky streak since his win in Greece.

Craig Breen Tour de Corse 2014, Start Ramp