Saturday SWRC wrap: Breen holds lead

A trouble-free run throughout day two of RallyRACC-Rally de Espana has helped Craig Breen move one step closer to being crowned the winner of this year’s FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship.

With a lead of 3m19.6s over Sweden’s P-G Andersson (pictured left with Breen) starting Sunday’s final six stages, the Irishman is seemingly in control at the wheel of his Ford Fiesta S2000.

“I’ve been coasting around and if I could go any slower I would,” said the 22-year-old. “Everything has gone according to plan today and although it’s been hairy out there on the stages we’ve been taking things very carefully. There’s quite a bit of pressure not to make a mistake and every little noise makes me panic that there might be something wrong. Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed we can get to the finish with no problems.”

PROTON driver Andersson dropped out of contention for victory with a broken driveshaft and an off on Friday. He’ll need Breen to falter to stand any chance of capturing the crown.

Yazeed Al-Rajhi, meanwhile, can also take the title having restarted under Rally 2 when turbo failure put him out on day one. “We just need to keep the concentration going,” said Al-Rajhi, who is more than 10 minutes behind Andersson. “We had no problems today and it’s good that we are third even after our retirement yesterday. Now we just need to drive safely tomorrow and hope that we make no mistakes.”

After a strong performance at the wheel of a second PROTON, Britain’s Alastair Fisher holds fourth following his restart this morning. Rounding off the top five is Hayden Paddon, who returned to the action after going off on Friday. The New Zealander has set several impressive stage times during the course of today.