SEBASTIEN Ogier has said the first anniversary of Craig Breen’s death was uppermost on his mind as he steered his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 to an unexpected Croatia Rally win alongside countryman Vincent Landais on Sunday.
It was the 40-year-old’s second success on Croatian Tarmac since the country was added to the FIA World Rally Championship calendar back in 2021, and took his podium count from 184 starts to one hundred.
The Frenchman inherited the lead on the antepenultimate stage of the Zagreb-based meeting yesterday after Hyundai Motorsport’s Thierry Neuville and Ogier’s Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate, Elfyn Evans, went off the road.
Neuville carried a slender 2.6 second advantage going into the ‘Zagorska Sela – Kumrovec’ test only to bring down a tree with the rear of his car at a fast left-hander and damage the wing on his i20 N Rally1.
With the aerodynamic balance of the number 11 machine affected, the Belgian found it “undriveable”, although a points haul of 18 for the weekend means he heads Evans by six points after round four of 13.
Evans also suffered a time-consuming spin on the same stage when he slid at a muddied right-hander; he haemorrhaged the guts of 20 seconds in his efforts to get the car pointing the correct way round.
Breen lost his life when he crashed his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car during a test exercise in the build-up to Croatia Rally 12 months ago.
A memorial has since been erected at the fatal spot to remember the 33-year-old, who earned nine World Rally Championship podiums.
“We had a big talk about Craig before we came here,” Ogier, whose winning margin over Evans was 9.7 seconds at the end, told Irish News Sport following the podium celebrations.
“He was, and will always be, in our minds, that is for sure, and even more when we come to Croatia, that much is clear. I hope he enjoyed the fight this weekend – we put on a great show – and I hope that he seen that from upstairs [heaven].”
He added: “It has been a tough weekend because we knew coming here our start position would be an issue – but we never gave up and kept the pressure on for the whole weekend. I don’t think I have had so many moments in one rally but it’s nice to get the win here – and a one-two finish – for the team.”