Craig Breen second at Rally Italy Sardinia as Ott Tanak ends win drought

Craig Breen earned a second place finish at the Rally Italy Sardinia which was won by Ott Tanak of Estonia on Sunday.

Waterford native Breen and his co-driver Paul Nagle won two of the 21 stages of the event, the first coming on stage 12 and the second on 17, and currently sit fourth in the championship standings on 52 points.

It's his second podium finish for the M-Sport Ford driver this year, having finished third in the season-opening round in Monte Carlo.

Tanak's success saw him win a World Rally Championship round for the first time in more than a year and ended Hyundai's season-long drought with a dominant victory.

The Estonian, world champion in 2019, had led since Saturday morning when Toyota's Esapekka Lappi crashed. He finished one minute and 3.2 seconds clear of Breen.

Spaniard Dani Sordo was third for Hyundai with M-Sport's Pierre-Louis Loubet a career-best fourth and Toyota's championship leader Kalle Rovanpera fifth.

Rovanpera extended his overall lead to 55 points, with closest rival Thierry Neuville, in a Hyundai, retiring on Saturday but returning to salvage five bonus points from the final Power Stage.

"The most important thing is that we got more points than Thierry," said Rovanpera.

The victory in the fifth round of the season was Tanak's first since the Arctic Rally in Finland in February 2021 - a gap of 462 days between wins - and ended Rovanpera's run of three triumphs in a row.

"It's been very challenging, especially since the beginning of this (hybrid) generation (of cars)," said Tanak, who won nine of the 21 gravel stages in Sardinia.

"We are definitely very happy, especially for the mechanics. They put in an incredible effort all last year and the beginning of this year."

The next round is the Kenyan