Puncture sucks the air out of Craig Breen’s Portuguese challenge

Waterford’s Craig Breen and his British co-driver Scott Martin had to be content with seventh place in the Vodafone Rally de Portugal, round six of the World Rally Championship.

Due to their misfortunes on Friday’s leg where punctures cost Kris Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle the lead and relegated Breen from third, both ran as virtual road-sweepers on Saturday’s second leg. Unfortunately, Meeke turned slightly late into a fast left-hand corner and went off the road, rolling the Citroen C3 WRC into the trees. Although Meeke was taken to hospital for precautionary checks, he was discharged within a few hours with just some bruises. Yesterday, Breen maintained his seventh place all through the day’s five stages. He said: “Our puncture on Friday, when we were running third, meant we had to open the road on the next two days and from that point on, it was difficult to hope for a better outcome.”

Meanwhile, Belgian ace Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 WRC) took victory to move 19 points ahead of Sebastien Ogier (Fiesta WRC) in the Drivers’ championship. The M-Sport Fiesta WRC of Welsh ace Elfyn Evans finished 40 seconds behind in second followed by his team mate Teemu Suninen, who was 7.3 seconds further behind. Billy Coleman award winner Callum Devine retired his Fiesta R2 on the final leg after clipping a bank and damaging the steering.