BREEN: I HAVE TO MOVE FORWARD DAVID EVANS

GROUP RALLYING EDITOR “Potential control tyre talk is a joke”

Craig Breen says he’s determined to take the next step in pace when he returns to a DS 3 WRC at Rally Finland later this month.

The Irishman’s third outing with the Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team was confirmed just hours after finishing an untroubled seventh overall at last week’s Rally Poland. Kris Meeke will also return to the DS 3 WRC for the Jyvaskyla-based event.

Despite never having competed in the DS 3 on gravel, Breen and co-driver Scott Martin were never out of the top 10 times on the longer stages and ended the rally five places higher than his team-mate Stephane Lefebvre. The Frenchman damaged the left-rear wheel of his car on the final day – he had been just ahead of Breen at the time.

Breen told MN: “The rally has gone exactly as I planned. I made no mistakes, it was perfect – maybe my expectations were a little bit ahead, but for my first time in the car on this surface I’m very happy.

“The aim for me now is to start at the pace I left off here. Even though there was quite a gap between my last rally [in a DS 3 WRC] and Poland, I managed to start at the speed I finished