Reigning WRC Academy Champion Craig Breen saw his 18 point advantage at the top of the Super 2000 World Rally championship standings significantly cut over the weekend.

Breen was hoping to extend his lead as the championship moved to gravel for the first time this year on round three of the season in Portugal but as torrential rain descended on the Algarve over Thursday night and Friday, Breen succumbed to water damage in the engine of his Ford Fiesta S2000 early on the four day event, retiring on stage six.

Naturally the Irish driver was very disappointed not to finish an event for the first time this season, “We encountered a ford/river crossing on the first stage this morning (Friday, special stage 5), I went through it very slowly but it still sucked in a lot of water. After the water had drained out the engine was running poorly so I took out the spark plugs, dried and replaced them and the car fired back up no problem everything was fine. Then on the following stage I drove through another ford,  there wasn’t that much water but it must have just have been the angle of the water impacting on the car as we suffered the same problem as the previous stage but on this occasion we weren’t so luck and the engine would not restart. After further inspection the water had damaged the engine and we were out of the rally. I know the conditions were quite bad but I had settled into a good rhythm and I’m gutted in regards to not being able to show my pace here in Portugal and looking more long term to the championship as well.”

The Algarve event began on Thursday afternoon with the customary superspecial street stage in the capital city of Lisbon where Breen set the pace leading by 1.7 seconds from New Zealander, Hayden Paddon. Following the superspecial three gravel stages were tackled on the trip back south to the event base in the resort of Faro. Overnight Craig trailed Paddon by 24.6 seconds after the Kiwi took stage wins on tests two and four.

Friday morning dawned to torrential rain turning the gravel stages into a mud bath. The rain continued for the day and as Craig retired on stage six, category leader Paddon was already after stopping on the previous test with an electrical problem.