Waterford's Craig Breen holds overnight lead in Rally Sweden

Enjoying one of the best days of his World Rally Championship career Waterford’s Craig Breen powered into the lead of Rally Sweden on the second run over the Brattby stage

FLYING HIGH: Craig Breen and co-driver James Fulton of Ireland steer their Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid during the 2nd stage of the Rally Sweden. Pic: Micke Fransson/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images

Enjoying one of the best ever days of his World Rally Championship career Waterford’s Craig Breen powered his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 into the lead of Rally Sweden on the second run over the Brattby stage (SS5) on Friday afternoon. Overnight, the Waterford ace and his Cavan co-driver James Fulton hold a slender 2.6 second lead over the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 of Estonian’s Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja.

Three different drivers set the best stage times on the morning’s three stages with Breen, taking full advantage of his road position, setting a blistering pace on SS2 to move from seventh overnight into second, just 1.3 seconds behind rally leader Tanak. Toyota Yaris duo Kalle Rovanpera and Takamoto Katsuta, who is co-driven by Tyrone’s Aaron Johnston were the respective pacesetters on SS3 and SS4 where Tanak continued to hold a narrow (2.1s) lead over Breen.