Craig Breen says his confidence is slowly being restored following the second run through the Sporta bārs Optibet stage on round two of the FIA European Rally Championship.

- Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Viesturs Lācis, www.go4speed.lv)

Breen was second fastest on the 10.54-kilometre test in his Peugeot Rally Academy 207 Super 2000 and now trails Kajetan Kajetanowicz in the battle for third place on Rally Liepāja by 1.1s.

With the stage surface more stable on the second pass now that a more obvious line has been created, Breen was able to up his pace as a result. “I just had no confidence before but that stage was a hell of a lot better,” said Breen. “It was much more enjoyable and it should be a lot easier now to move forward.”

Esapekka Lappi was fastest through the stage, 7.8s quicker than Breen, in his ŠKODA Motorsport Fabia Super 2000. Lappi’s team-mate Sepp Wiegand was third quickest and also far happier than he was after the first run through the test. “You can drive in a proper rhythm now, rather than like a grandma,” said the German.

Out front, Gryazin’s lead is down to 18.4s after going sixth quickest, which brought an end to his run of stage wins for Sports Racing Technologies.

Timmu Körge stopped in the stage with Andris Mālnieks, co-driver to Jānis Vorobjovs, reporting the bonnet of the Estonian’s Fiesta R5 was up.

Crews head next to Kuldīga for a 15-minute remote service halt. SS5, the repeat of the 26.34-kilometre Ecorent test, goes live at 16:25hrs local time. Click here for live results and text commentary, follow the ERC on Facebook and Twitter and tune in to ERC Rally Radio for live stage-end reports.