Irishman’s Finnish stunner set to open doors for 2020 BREEN
STORMS ONTO WRC TEAMS’ WISH LIST
Craig Breen’s dream Rally Finland return has secured the Irishman a Wales Rally GB outing with the Hyundai team.
Breen ran as top Hyundai on the opening day of last week’s WRC counter and achieved his ultimate goal of having to slow down to allow one of his teammates – team leader Thierry Neuville – ahead on the last day.
“I absolutely couldn’t ask for more than this,” Breen told MN. “It’s a dream to be back and back with this team.”
Craig Breen has played himself firmly into contention for a long-term future with Hyundai after his stunning run on Rally Finland last week.
Breen guided a factory i20 Coupe WRC to seventh place, dropping out of the top six on Sunday to elevate Thierry Neuville and aid the Belgian’s world championship challenge. For the first time in his career, Breen was happy to slow down.
“The event surpassed my expectations,” said Breen. “My whole plan before the rally was to be in position to have to slow down and let somebody by. That’s all I could target and that’s exactly how it panned out. I know it’s an odd thing to say and it’s probably the only time in my career I’ll be happy to slow down for somebody, but that’s the truth.
“It was the first event for me and Paul [Nagle, co-driver] in the big car and I know it can only get better from here. I’m delighted.”
Asked if Breen had opened the door to a deal for next season, Hyundai team principal Andrea Adamo replied: “For sure he hasn’t closed it! He has shown he has the pace and he’s smart enough to work in a works team. He is good in testing and I see just good things out of this event together. In life there are train’s passing by, if you are smart you jump on – if you are the fool then you put them in the dustbin. I think in Finland, in the last few days, we have seen who is smart and who is not.”
Hyundai will confirm Neuville, Sebastien Loeb and Andreas Mikkelsen for Rally Germany in the coming days, but Breen is lined up for an i20 return in Wales and potentially other events this year.
“I have no contract with Craig,” said Adamo. “But yes, there is a potential opportunity moving forward. I have already in my mind what I would like to do. I made plan who goes where and
there was a name similar to his [Breen] in there – he deserves it.”
Motorsport News’s sources have confirmed the same Hyundai line-up for Wales, with Breen running alongside Neuville and Mikkelsen.
Breen was a big hit with the Hyundai squad and he admitted the feeling was mutual.
He added: “I was extremely happy with the team, the whole atmosphere was great and
I could only wish for some more opportunities.”
Breen’s immediate pace in the car was sensational as he registered top-six times on eight of the first 11 stages; he missed out by a fastest time by a tenth of a second in Aanekoski.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t get the scratch [time],” he said, “but I’m still over the moon. I knew Saturday would be a bit tougher with the running order [reversed], but we were still right there with the drivers around us. The only place I struggled a little bit was in the ruts and that was simply because I was worrying, thinking back to the car I drove before and waiting for something to happen. The engineer told me they could see on the data that I was doing things with the car when I didn’t have to. I was checking the car and trying to keep it stable with the left foot [on the brake] and I didn’t have to. That’s a learning thing.”