The final morning of Rally Islas Canarias started with a bang, as the first car on the road Josh McErlean crashed out on the final day’s opening test.
McErlean understeered on entry to a right-hander and yanked the handbrake to try and rotate through the corner, though ultimately ran wide and clattered an armco barrier on the outside of the corner.
His Ford Puma Rally1 suffered rear-left suspension damage, forcing him to park up and retire from 10th place on the spot.
Kalle Rovanperä’s stage-winning streak was curtailed on Saturday night by Elfyn Evans, who’d won the Gran Canaria Arena superspecial.
But on Sunday morning it was back to business as usual, winning the first pass of Sunday’s full-length stages to establish a 4.7s advantage in the Sunday classification.
We made a big mistake with the setup, it’s a disaster.Adrien Fourmaux
Though Sébastien Ogier is still all set to finish second overall, Elfyn Evans has managed to put himself one second ahead in the Sunday order, with the eight-time world champion struggling to commit on the Maspalomas test.
Most drivers complained their notes were too conservative on Maspalomas, with Thierry Neuville explaining that “I had such bad traffic here that I was driving 30kph all the stage.”
That also compromised Ogier: “I’m committed enough on my pacenotes,” he said. “They are too safe and on this fast stage it makes a difference straight away.”
Takamoto Katsuta remains fourth overall but is fifth in the Sunday order so far.
Neuville is bearing down rapidly on Hyundai team-mate Adrien Fourmaux. The reigning world champion is fourth-fastest so far in the Sunday order and has closed the gap to 1.2s in the overall order, with Fourmaux ruing setup tweaks he’d made in morning service.
Though not on the pace of the Toyotas, Neuville is at least demonstrating improved speed on Sunday relative to the previous legs
“We made a big mistake with the setup, it’s a disaster,” said Fourmaux. “I lose confidence and in that stage if you lose confidence, you lose time.”
Ott Tänak is seventh, well ahead of the battle for WRC2 honors between Yohan Rossel and Alejandro Cachón. The pair are trading tenths of a second on the stages, with Cachón admitting he’s unwilling to risk it all with a maiden podium on the line.
“I don’t want to make a mistake,” said Cachón. “This stage is quite fast with some bumpy sections, so just trying to keep the pace and not make a mistake. Second place is a good result for us.”
Grégoire Munster, who lost three minutes with an off on Saturday afternoon, climbed past Efrén Llarena’s Citroën C3 Rally2 into 11th but must find another 54.3s on the final three stages to catch Nikolay Gryazin for 10th overall.
