Thursday, 26 November 2020 22:29

The Gran Canaria Stadium gave the flag start of the 44 Rally Islas Canarias

The premises where the football team UD Las Palmas usually plays hosted for the first time ever the formal start of the FIA European Rally Championship's last date. Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jaeger-Amland, with their Skoda Fabia R5, chose to take the first place at the stages of the first leg after having chosen this position in the selection turn for the starting order.

The moment of truth for all the teams entered in the 44 Rally Islas Canarias has arrived – a race that will end the season of the FIA European Rally Championship. For the first time ever, the Estadio Gran Canaria has played host and witnessed a very original opening ceremony right at the foot of the field, very different to the previous editions.

At the very same premises where the UD Las Palmas competes, the teams have been wondering about this one issue – the weather. There has been plenty of rain and wind since the early morning and it could continue during the first leg.

The first drivers to get to know the state of the tarmac will be the Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jaeger-Amland. The Skoda Fabia R5 team chose the first position at the selection of the starting order – a strategy with which they hope to repeat the victory achieved just a few weeks ago in Hungary.

The first Spanish team to start at the special stages will be the one made up by Luis Monzón and José Carlos Déniz. The Citroën C3 R5 team will be starting right behind Adrien Fourmaux-Renaud Jamoul (Ford Fiesta R5 MKII) and Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof-Poldi Welserheimb (Ford Fiesta R5 MKII).

On the other hand, about twenty teams have provided the fans with signed fotos available to download from the rally web site.

For this first leg, which has around 100 kilometers against the clock, the special stages ‘Valsequillo’ (11,91 km at 10:19 am and 02:54 pm), ‘San Mateo – DISA’ (12,01 km at 10:41 am and 03:16 pm), ‘Artenara’ (12,21 km at 11:13 am and 03:48 pm) and ‘Tejeda’ (12,95 km at 11:35 am y 04:10 pm) will be held. The leg will end with the city special stage ‘Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – DISA’ (1,53 km at 06:33 pm).

 

Read 1147 times