Chennai, July 4 (UNI) With a second place finish at the Rally
Liepaja, Team MRF Tyres today registered their first ever
podium since entering the European Rally Championship
in 2020.
It was a hard fought podium with Craig Breen and Paul Nagle
battling against Europe’s best throughout the day.
The day’s action saw six stages and 90.92 km of action in warm
and sunny conditions on roads around the Latvian coastal town
of Liepaja.
The Team MRF Tyres Hyundai i20 R5 started the day in second
place, involved in a great fight with Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin
Aleksandrov (VW), Efrén Llarena/ Sara Fernández (Skoda) and
Alexey Lukyanuk/Dmitriy Eremeev (Citroën).
Just 13.4 seconds separated the four cars.
The day started with the 18.42 km Neste stage where Breen
and Nagle came in third in the stage with a time of 9:18.2,
just 3.4 seconds off the lead.
The pace was repeated on the second stage of the day, with
Breen/Nagle taking second just 3.1 seconds off the stage
win on the Invest in Liepaja! stage. Third on stage nine,
solidified Team MRF Tyres second place going into the final
service.
With just three stages remaining, Breen and Nagle sat in
second 15.2 seconds off Gryzain/Konstantin in the lead and
16.0 seconds ahead of Lukanuk/Eremeev in third.
After final service, SS10 saw a repeat of the Neste stage
with Breen/Nagle coming home in fifth, 3.9 seconds off the
stage win.
The eleventh stage would be a new one for the rally with
the 9.93 km blast setting up a setting up a grandstand finish.
Breen and Nagle were able to bring the car home third on
the final stage to finish second in the overall standings as
they stood at the final stopline.
UNI GV 1630