BREEN HANGING ON AUSTRALIA OUTING
Irishman will not find out his future until after Rally Spain
Craig Breen’s chances of driving a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC on the season-closing Rally Australia depend on Dani Sordo’s performance at next month’s Rally of Spain.
Ironically, a strong performance from the Spaniard would probably rule him out of the Coffs Harbour-based event. Sordo, who misses next month’s Wales Rally GB, sits 10th in the standings – but he’s only 22 points off fourth place.
Hyundai Motorsport director Andrea Adamo told Motorsport News he wouldn’t make any decisions about his team heading down under until after the penultimate round in Salou.
Adamo said: “Australia is a place where road cleaning is very important. Let me see where Dani [Sordo] is after Catalunya. You can be the fastest man in the world, but if you clean the road for the others then you are finished. I want to see the standings and then I will decide.”
Ideally, Adamo will want a driver sitting as far down the standings as possible in order to benefit from the cleanest possible conditions coming from a dayone start position at the back of the World Rally Car pack.
Breen finished seventh on his single start in the WRC this season – Rally Finland – and sits six places below Sordo.
The Waterford-based driver, who returns to the Hyundai team in Wales next month, is keen on a third i20 Coupe WRC outing this season.
“I’d do anything to go to Australia,” Breen told MN.
“I’d love to go back there to right all the wrongs of last year. I left with some horrible memories so I really want to go back there and do a good job for Hyundai.
“But it’s down to whatever cards are best to play before the rally. Andrea is playing a fantastic game, he’s doing absolutely everything in his power to win the championship and I have to make myself the, I guess, third strongest card to play in Australia.
“It’s up to us in GB and what Dani [Sordo] does on the rallies – Catalunya – towards the end of the year. It’s out of my control. All I can do is do my best on GB.”