Ireland’s Craig Breen and Paul Nagle claimed a dramatic win on Rallye Sanremo in Italy bringing home their Hyundai i20 R5 in first place.

The pair were competing in the event to build up competitive tarmac mileage ahead of the Croatian round of the World Rally Championship which takes place at the end of April where Breen and Nagle will compete in a factory Hyundai i20 World Rally Car for the Korean manufacturer.


Following a nip and tuck battle with local stars Andrea Crugnola and Giandomenico Basso, Breen was deemed to have won the event by 4.8 seconds but a 10 second penalty soon appeared on the results, dropping the Irish driver to second place.
 

However, in light of traffic congestion on a road section, theorganisers decided to cancel all time penalties for early and late check in at time control 8A and Breen and Nagle were declared the winners on the final published results.
 

Fellow Irish crew James Boland and John McCay also travelled to the event in their Ford Fiesta Rally 4 but retired after the fourth stage with damaged steering.