Tour de Corse

  • Peugeot Media.com (B)

    Most stage wins
    Friday afternoon saw Craig Breen claim a fourth fastest time from the day’s six stages which enabled him to recover a footing on the overnight podium. Fickle weather returned for Saturday’s action near Ajaccio and, running on ‘hard’ tyres in damp conditions, the back of Craig’s car swiped a bridge parapet on SS7.

    That cost him another 30 or so seconds and dropped him from the top three, although not for long. With two stages remaining, the Peugeot Rally Academy was back up to third, six-tenths of a second clear of Stéphane Sarrazin. In the end, however, he was squeezed off the podium by a margin of 3.2s. With four fastest times to his name, Craig Breen completed the rally in fourth spot and consolidated his second place in the provisional European championship standings.Meanwhile, his combativeness was rewarded with the Colin McRae ERC Flat Out Trophy at the end of the rally.

    Craig BREEN: “There were highs and lows this weekend. On the positive side, we were the fastest crew on Day 1, even though this was only our second attempt at this very difficult rally. The second leg didn’t go so well. We made a poor tyre choice for the first loop of three stages. If we wanted to stand a chance of making up for lost ground, we needed to opt for different tyres compared with those of our rivals. Unfortunately, SS7 was still damp and I was on ‘hard’ rubber… My next event is Ypres which is another highly specific rally that will be completely new to me. I will be counting a great deal on the experience of my co-driver Paul Nagle who won the Belgian event in 2009 alongside Kris Meeke.”

  • Peugeot Media.com (A)

    The 56th running of the ‘Giru di Corsica-Tour de Corse’, round five of the 2013 FIA European Rally Championship, was marked by unsettled weather which made the island’s stages particularly treacherous. The Peugeot Rally Academy’s Craig Breen collected the highest number of stage wins, but team-mate Jérémi Ancian failed to finish. Bryan Bouffier earned victory for Peugeot.

    Craig Breen: early pace-setter It was raining heavily at the start in Calvi on Friday morning as crews chose their tyres for the first two stages of the 2013 Tour de Corse. Craig Breen opted for the ‘soft’-compound version of the new Michelin Pilot Sport and went on to claim the opening test. He followed that up with another win on SS2, plus a third on SS3 which allowed him to consolidate his early lead. He then dropped time on the next stage, however… “I was a bit too wide out of a corner shortly after the start of SS4 and the rear-right corner of my Peugeot 207 S2000 hit a bank, causing the tyre to puncture. I lost around a minute-and-a-half but I made it to the finish, ” related Craig at the following service halt in Corte. The incident dropped the Irishman to fifth overall. At this point, he was the only surviving member of the Peugeot Rally Academy, after Jérémi Ancian, who fell back two minutes after a puncture on SS1, was side-lined by an ‘off’ two stages later. His Peugeot 207 S2000 was too damaged for him to be able to re-start on Day 2.

  • 4th after Massive Push

    Craig pushed his Peugeot as much as possible over the final stage pulling 4.7 seconds from Stephane but it wasnt to be. 4th in the end but one of Craigs most impressive drives of the year.

  • SS10 Interview

  • SS10 Down to 4th

    On the penultimate stage Craig has dropped back behind Sarrazin. Going into the final stage the gap between the two is 7.9 sec

  • New Rear Bumper

    New Rear Bumper

  • Eurosport SS8 Interview


    View on YouTube

  • SS9 back to 3rd

    Craig has regain 3rd on SS9 with a faster time than Sarrazin. Crews go to service now
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Craig Breen