Ford Driver Breen to Participate in Sanremo Rally as WRC Croatia warm-up

The M-Sport Ford driver Craig Breen has declared plans to compete in the Italian asphalt rally with a Ford Fiesta Rally2. He won the race twice in 2019 and 2021, driving Skoda and Hyundai R5 vehicles, respectively. The second round of the Italian Rally Championship will be placed at Sanremo, which has a long history in the World Rally Championship, having hosted around until 2003.

The tarmac roads of the event will give the Irishman an opportunity to prepare for the asphalt of Rally Croatia, which will bring an end to an almost two-month respite since the last WRC round in the snow of Sweden in February. For the April 8-10 event, Breen will reconnect with co-driver John Rowan, with whom he last participated in 2020.

Breen said, “I’m really happy to say that we’ll be back at Rally Sanremo again this year, Obviously it’s been a while out of the competition since Rally Sweden so, with Croatia coming forward, Sanremo presented a good opportunity to come back into competition again, I’m really looking forward to it, going out with the Fiesta Rally2 for the first time, with John Rowan on the notes, only our second rally together. So I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do there and we’ll do everything we can to make it through there.”

Breen is presently sixth in the World Rally Championship after placing third in Monte Carlo and earning a point in Sweden after crashing out on the first day.

The 32-year-old isn’t the only M-Sport WRC driver planning a comeback before Rally Croatia.

Adrien Fourmaux, a teammate, will compete in the Rally of Nations Guanajuato in Mexico this weekend as part of Team France’s lineup, with 1994 WRC champion Didier Auriol.

Rally Mexico organisers came up with the idea for the event, which will take place from April 1-3. It’s an attempt to bring top-level rallying back to the region, as well as a message to the World Rally Championship that Mexico wants to return to the schedule in 2023.