An early Christmas present — that is how Waterford’s Craig Breen described the announcement that will see him remain with Peugeot Sport next season and along with tackling the European Rally Championship (ERC) campaign, he will also compete in seven rounds of the WRC2 category within the World Rally Championship.

Craig Breen’s barren run in the European Rally Championship continued yesterday on the opening leg of the final round, the Tour de Corse, when the Waterford driver retired his Peugeot 208 T16 on the day’s penultimate stage-

Motorsport: Three young drivers — Josh Moffett, Owen Murphy and Desi Henry — will battle it out in tomorrow’s Glens of Antrim Rally to become the Valvoline Irish Forest Rally champion.

Although not exactly threadbare, Declan Boyle’s title aspirations in the Dunlop National Rally Championship hinge on securing maximum points from all three remaining rounds.

Even though Finland’s Esapekka Lappi and co-driver Janne Ferm (Skoda Fabia S2000) dominated most of the 10 stages in yesterday’s opening leg of the Discover Northern Ireland Circuit of Ireland Rally, the event remains delicately poised and set for a frenetic finish through today’s eight stages.

On home ground, it is not surprising that there is a wave of expectation on Craig Breen to win the Discover Northern Ireland Circuit of Ireland Rally, round four of the European Rally Championship that gets underway in Belfast this morning.

Entering today’s final six stages of Rally Finland, Waterford’s Craig Breen and his Killarney co-driver Paul Nagle lead the way in the S-WRC category.