Oliver Solberg led a Toyota top five on the shakedown stage ahead of Rally Islas Canarias.
Toyota dominated Spain’s round of the World Rally Championship last year; on for a top-five lockout before Sami Pajari crashed into the barriers on Saturday.
It has won all four of the events in 2026 too and, based on the shakedown ahead of round five, appears to be the benchmark again in Gran Canaria.
Monte Carlo winner Solberg was quickest on the first pass and improved on his second to outpace championship leader Takamoto Katsuta by half a second, with Sébastien Ogier (+0.7s) and Pajari (+0.8s) both within a second of the benchmark.
Elfyn Evans completed a GR Yaris Rally1 top five, 1.1s off his team-mate’s pace.
The lead Hyundai was 3.4s adrift of Solberg, driven by 2020 Rally Islas Canarias winner Adrien Fourmaux.
Hyundai struggled badly in Canarias 12 months ago and its drivers were visibly battling more understeer than the Toyotas on shakedown.
Fourmaux was 0.4s quicker than his world champion team-mate Thierry Neuville, who returns to action after making a mistake that cost a certain victory on the final stage of Croatia Rally two weeks ago.
“It’s good to be in the car,” Neuville said. “I’ve always dreamed to be a rally driver and I’ve been one for many, many years. I’ve had lots of good times, at the moment we’re in a tough time which makes it more challenging, but somehow I try to not give up and keep carrying on, even if things are not as simple as they should be.”
Dani Sordo returns to the Rally1 fold for the first time since Acropolis Rally Greece in September 2024, and set the eighth fastest time on shakedown – 1.7s shy of Fourmaux’s effort.
Josh McErlean was sixth quickest for M-Sport Ford, ahead of all the Hyundais, after the first pass of shakedown, but faded to ninth at the end – 1.8s adrift of Sordo and 7.3s off the ultimate pace.
He did, however, outpace team-mate Jon Armstrong (who was slowest of the Rally1 runners) by 1.4s.
Roberto Daprà set the pace in WRC2 in his Škoda, just 0.1s ahead of Alejandro Cachón’s Toyota with championship leader Léo Rossel’s Citroën another 0.6s behind.
