It was success for Irishman and Peugeot Rally Academy driver Craig Breen at the weekend, winning round two of the FIA European Rally Championship, Rally Liepája in Latvia. Breen’s maiden ERC win was on the Acropolis rally in March 2014, almost twelve months ago, the reliability issues with the Peugeot 208T16 are now clearly sorted. Using his previous experience on the event Craig chose to run fourteenth on the road for leg one. It was similar conditions to qualifying that greeted the drivers through the opening stage on Saturday morning and Craig again guided the Peugeot 208T16 through the slippery slush to finish a mere 0.7 seconds down on the fastest time. It was from that point on that Craig started to carve out his lead arriving at the mid-day service with a twenty one second advantage. Sunday’s leg of six stages proved complex with heavy snowfall and a spin on the opening stage for Breen and his co-driver Scott Martin. Despite the spin they arrived at the service point with a lead of one minute thirteen seconds. Craig drove the final three stages flawlessly to take the win by just over one minute and forty seconds. This win earns Breen forty points and places him in second position in the European Rally Championship standings. Craig’s next outing will be close to home at the ERC Circuit of Ireland Rally, which takes place in Belfast over Easter weekend.
