Titanic Battle in Finland sees Breen edged by 2.6 seconds

2.6 seconds is all that separated Craig Breen (IRE) and Egon Kaur (EST) after the final breath taking stage at World Rally Finland, round three of the FIA WRC Academy. The pair provided a thrilling climax to the young driver category as the result went right to the wire on the final stage. With the last two remaining stages, Estonian driver, Egon Kaur trailed Craig by a slender margin of 2.3s. Kaur then pulled 2.6 sec back on the penultimate test as Breen was hampered by catching slower competitors. The two drivers who had pulled away from the rest of the field were neck and neck all the way through until the last section of the final stage but then the North European driver pulled out 2.3 seconds to claim victory by a meager 2.6s. Afterwards Craig stated "I lost a lot of time on SS16 where I was caught behind two cars. We really wanted to win, we were so hungry for this victory, but that's rallying and we can't think too much about the ifs and buts. We have to focus on the rest of the season now and with Tarmac events to come I think we can do well and maybe still win the Cup."

The event got underway on Thursday afternoon with three stages and overnight Craig was lying in third overall. Breen lost time on the initial test with a spin and then was hampered on the second, as there appeared to be a problem with the rear of his Fiesta R2, causing some handling issues. In service after the final stage of the day Craig reflected on the opening day "Our first day's run wasn't too bad at all. We spun about 1km into SS1 which cost us around 10 seconds and then had some problems with the Fiesta's rear handling on SS2. Even so we are in a good position heading into tomorrow and I am looking forward to challenging for the lead."

Alastair Fisher (GBR) held the lead on Friday morning as the rally resumed for a further eight stages. Egon Kaur (EST) was in second place 22.7 second off the lead, with Craig just 1.2 back in third. Over the morning's stages, Fisher kept up his Day One pace to stay out in front but Breen overhauled the Estonian driver to claim second overall. As the cars entered remote service Craig was 28 seconds down on Fisher and 9.4 up on Kaur in third. In service Craig reported "A car in front of us had an accident on SS6 so we had to stop and check if the crew were ok costing us 6 or 7 seconds. Other than that no issues - I have a better feeling with the car today after we made some changes to the rear damper settings and that has helped us this morning."

The first big exit of the rally came on stage seven when rally leader Alastair Fisher rolled out but it was Kaur who inherited the lead as he claimed fastest time on that stage. Kaur then extended his lead over Craig to 15.8 second on SS8 with another fastest time. Breen managed to stem the tide however on stage nine taking his first fastest time of the weekend and cut the lead to just 6.4s. The Irish driver doubled his count of fastest stage times on the day's last test to hold a 2.4s lead going into the final day. "I've had a really good day", Craig said on Friday evening, "Obviously we benefited from Alastair's [Fisher] retirement, but we had been gaining pace throughout the day. We chipped away at the times and to be leading going into Day Three is great. I know the stages well having competed here over the past two years so I think we are in a very good position."

Saturday dawned to a tough seven stages and the Estonian driver took first blood by retaking the lead on SS12 by just .8 of a sec. This started a tit for tat battle for the lead that would continue right up to the final stage. Breen hit back on stage 13 to edge 8.1 ahead of his rival and looked at this point to have made the decisive move but Kaur turned the tables on SS14 when he recorded the stage win by 8.4 seconds. The gap at this point was an incredible 0.3 of a second and as the cars entered midday service Breen was back in front by 2.3, meaning that over that loop of five stages and nearly 70km's of rallying the pair were separated by just 0.1 of a second.

On to the penultimate test and the lead changed hands yet again as Kaur took 2.6 out of the Irish driver over the 21.35 km's, Breen was hampered during the stage as he was caught behind two cars. As the two driver sized up for a final stage showdown there was just 0.3s between them. Breen reflected afterwards "We were still neck and neck all the way through on each of the splits but Kaur edged out a 2.3 second advantage over the final sector to claim victory by 2.6s.