Breen third despite puncture

Having led the Tour de Corse, round five of the European Rally Championship, for the opening three stages, Irish pair Craig Breen/Paul Nagle in the Sainteloc Peugeot 207 S2000 are in recovery mode after a time-consuming puncture on the fourth of yesterday’s six stages.

On the opening 27 kilometre stage, Breen claimed his car was moving about, possibly as a result of picking a soft compound tyre, yet he posted the best time — 11.5 seconds faster than Formula 1 race winner, Robert Kubica (Citroen DS3 S2000). Fastest times on the second and third stages allowed Breen extend his lead over Kubica to 26.4 seconds, with Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot) and Jan Kopecky (Skoda) next.

A downbeat Breen arrived at the end of the fourth stage, after a right rear puncture saw him finish a minute and 23.1 seconds slower than Kubica.

On the day’s penultimate stage, the Waterford ace clocked the fastest stage time as Kubica retired his Citroen with a fuel related problem, Breen moved into third – 39.7 seconds behind the similar car of new leader, Bryan Bouffier. A gamble with a soft tyre didn’t pay off for Breen, who was hoping for rain on the final stage. Remarkably, he only lost a tenth of a second to Kopecky.