After Day-One of World Rally Sweden, Ireland’s Craig Breen lies 2nd in the Super 2000 category (SWRC) and 16th overall. At the end of the final Friday night super special stage in Karlstad, Breen said. ”We had some good stage times during the day, my best was on stage four where it was pleasing to go fastest in SWRC. I’m pleased to be in second and I think I deserve to be in that position. The conditions have been tough but you have to expect that here in Sweden. I expect more of the same tomorrow and I think it could be even hard as there less snow and the surface will cut up a lot, we still have a long way to go.”
Breen, who won the opening round of the season in Monte Carlo, suffered a puncture on the first stage on Thursday night as the rally got underway with the 1.5km superspecial at the Karlstad trotting arena. Swedish driver P-G Andersson set the pace in the Proton Motorsport, Satria Neo S2000. Andersson was followed by fellow Swede Pontus Tidemand +0.9 and coming in third was New Zealand driver Hayden Paddon +2.1 seconds. Breen finished the stage 7th in SWRC and 37th overall.
Fridays action took nine stages in total, eight of which were located around the remote service halt town of Kongsvinger and the day was concluded by the second run over the superspecial at the Karlstad trotting arena. Recomposed on the morning opener Breen immediately moved to 5th and was up to 3rd after stage 3, the Irish driver being elevated to 18th overall after his early attack. This continue on stage 4, where he recorded his first fastest SWRC stage time consolidating his class and overall position
During the morning loop the top two in the classification were Swedish drivers P_G Andersson (Proton Motorsport, PROTON Satria Neo S2000) and Pontus Tidemand (ŠKODA Fabia S2000), as the two reached midday service take were separated by 7.4 seconds, with 34.2 in arrears to leader Andersson.
In midday service Breen reported, "It's been a tough morning out there, we dropped time last night with the puncture and I wanted to get a good start this morning. The pace from PG and Pontus is very fast but they are on home ground so I must take that into consideration. I'm happy at the moment."
The afternoon got underway with stage 6 and the rerun of the Opakar test, all remained the same at the top of the SWRC leader board with P-G Andersson leading from Pontus Tidemand in second +6.6 seconds and Breen in third +46.9 away.
The next piece of drama unfolded on stage 8 when second placed Tidemand hit a ‘Snowbank’ causing him to lose 3 minutes as the front air intake was clogged with snow. Breen was the benefactor here inheriting the Skoda driver’s position.
Over the penultimate Torsby 19 km test there was no change to the standings and this was also repeated on the final stage of the day on the Karlstad ‘Superspecial’, Breen however had more luck second time around where he recorded, fifth best time 01:41.7, just 1.7 down on stage winner Andersson in the Proton.
Ending the day 2nd in SWRC and 16th O/A, Breen stated, “On the Monte, I battled all through with P-G (Andersson) and the pattern continues here in Sweden. He and Pontus (Tidemand) have been setting a fast pace all day. As this is only my third competitive outing on snow I must be pleased. There’s still a long way to go and tomorrow will be a very challenging day but my second place is something to fight for so let’s fight.”
World Rally Sweden:
Super 2000 category - Leader Board after stage 10
1. P.G. ANDERSSON 1:27:52.2
2. C. BREEN +2:07.7
3. P. TIDEMAND +4:05.9
4. Y. AL RAJHI + +4:47.8
5. M. OLEKSOWICZ +7:03.8
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- Status Quo in SWRC after Day-Two of World Rally Sweden
- Craig Breen – World Rally Sweden (Day Two Update)
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