Rumours linking Craig Breen and Paul Nagle with a move to M-Sport for next year’s World Rally Championship have heightened even further this week.
A story in this week’s Motorsport News claims that Breen will be unveiled as an M-Sport driver sometime in September, contracted for the next two years. The story also suggested that Breen will test M-Sport’s 2022 Ford Puma Rally1 after the Acropolis Rally which takes place between 9-12 September.
The Irish crew has represented Hyundai for the past two years but only on select world rallies. Breen’s six WRC events since the start of 2020 have been topped up by European Rally Championship outings in an MRF Tyres Hyundai i20 R5.
Last weekend’s Barum Rally was the first event Breen missed for MRF as the Indian manufacturer was instead represented by Hyundai junior driver Jari Huttunen.
Breen and Nagle’s will drive for Hyundai on Rally Finland in October as Dani Sordo pilots Hyundai’s third car in Greece next week.
It looks like we won’t have to wait much longer to find out if Finland will be Breen’s final hurrah behind the wheel of Hyundai’s World Rally Car.
WRC’s 2022 driver market jigsaw is starting to come together as Teemu Suninen’s recent departure from M-Sport rules him out of driving a Puma next year. Meanwhile Esapekka Lappi announced he will drive a privately entered Toyota Yaris WRC on Rally Finland.
Lappi’s move fuels speculation that he will share a factory drive with Sebastien Ogier who is set to step down from full-time rally competition in 2022.
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Photo courtesy of Hyundai Motorsport