Breen crashes out of WRC Rally Sweden, Lappi leads on return

The M-Sport driver rode his luck on early in Stage 2 when he clipped a snowbank that pitched his Ford Puma into a spin, 4.7km into the 27.8km test.

Breen was able to reverse out of the snowbank to rejoin the stage after dropping 28s, but worse was to follow minutes later.

The Irishman misjudged a high-speed section, resulting in his Puma ploughing through a snowbank.

With his car buried in deep powdered snow on the edge of the forest road, officials reacted to the incident by throwing the red flags.

Both Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle emerged from the incident unscathed, but it appears unlikely the car will be retrieved and his day appears to be over.

Breen, who started second on the road behind Kalle Rovanpera's Toyota, had been sitting in seventh after finishing the opening stage 7.4s adrift of morning pacesetter Ott Tanak (Hyundai).

After its miserable Monte Carlo Rally, Hyundai made a strong start in Sweden, with Tanak's teammates Oliver Solberg and Thierry Neuville third and fourth after the first test.

Neuville was lucky to avoid a similar incident to Breen's moment early in Stage 2. The Belgian was almost turned into a spin at the precise point where Breen had earlier taken a bite out of the snowbank.

He ended the stage under red flag conditions reporting a problem with the battery.

"We were lucky with the red flag," said Neuville. "The battery pack wasn't working and the car asked me to turn on the emergency, but I can't stop it now."

The stage was restarted after a 15-minute delay, although Neuville and M-Sport's Gus Greensmith are expected to be awarded nominal times having been forced to slow to a crawl due to the red flag.

Rovanpera, sitting second overall behind Tanak, was the only driver to complete the stage at normal speeds prior to Breen's crash.

Toyota returnee Esapekka Lappi set the fastest time through the second stage, with a time 2.5 seconds faster than Rovanpera to vault him into the rally lead.

The Finn, who last drove for Toyota in 2018, is making his first start in a factory WRC car since the conclusion of the 2020 season with M-Sport.

He replaces eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier in Toyota's roster, with the Frenchman only contesting a partial campaign, after impressing Toyota boss Jari-Matti Latvala with an outing in a privateer Yaris on last year's Rally Finland.

Solberg remains third, with Tanak dropping to fourth.