NEWS FROM THE WEEKEND

Ireland’s Craig Breen finished fourth in the Super 2000 section of Rally de Espana, the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship. The Waterford driver’s Ford Fiesta held third place at the end of the opening day but a broken driveshaft on one of Saturday’s stages cost him time and dropped him behind former Junior World Champion Martin Prokop of the Czech Republic.

Prokop managed to stay ahead of the Irishman for the rest of the rally, claiming third position among the Super 2000 cars. Breen finished in fifteenth place overall in the rally, which was won by seven times World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb of France in his Citroen.

The Dublin-Oxford pairing of Frank Lenehan and Anthony Preston claimed top place in the Circuit of Ireland Retrospective Trial which finished in Lisburn last night, for the second time in three years. Seven times winners Eamonn Byrne and Paul Phelan led on Friday night, but dropped to second place during one of Saturday’s regularity sections and fell farther behind yesterday.