Team MRF Tyres driver, Craig Breen is no stranger to the Latvian roads of Rally Liepaja. He won here in 2015 but the roads were covered in snow. Now he is here in the summer with his Hyundai i20 R5. We took some time with Craig to talk about the weekend coming up.
Q. What are aiming for this weekend at Rally Liepaja for Team MRF Tyres?
Craig Breen: I would like to try to pick up from the last rally and improve myself the car and the tyres. This is a completely different challenge from what we had in Rome. The roads are very fast. I have never done this rally in the summertime. I won here in 2015 when it was a winter rally, so I am looking forward to it.
Q. You won Rally Liepaja when it was a winter event, is there anything you can bring over from that time to now, when it is run in the summer?
Craig Breen: Apparently some of the roads are similar but looking at the onboards, it is hard to get any comparison to doing the rally in the summer when compared to the wintertime. I don’t think I can take too much from it except I know my way around Liepaja and the service park! The stages aren’t similar. I enjoy fast roads, so let’s see how this weekend goes.
Q. How do you find the development of the MRF Tyres gravel spec?
Craig Breen: I am pleasantly surprised. We haven’t done a lot of development so far on gravel, mainly due to the Covid-19 situation. We started again with Rome so we went straight for the tarmac tyre. So we have some development to look forward to for the gravel tyre but I have to say we are going in the right direction with it.
Q. Rally Liepaja has 10 stages and they are long. How do you approach this rally?
Craig Breen: I think here you must go flat out from the start. The nature of the stages and profile of the roads doesn’t allow you to hold back in any form. We need to be on it from the first corner of the first stage. I am looking forward to getting on these fast roads with the MRF Tyres and then we have Estonia in the WRC in a few weeks. I am trying to get into the rhythm and get more data for the development of the tyres.
Q. What would be a successful weekend for you?
Craig Breen: We need to get more data so we can continue to develop the tyres. That is the most important thing. In Rome we weren’t that far away from the podium so if we can do that again I would be happy. We have to be realistic that the program is fresh but definitely we will see what happens and I hope for a good result for Team MRF Tyres.
