Saturday, 28 November 2020 16:08

Fourmaux-Jamoul reached the leadership after a hard start in the second leg

Incidents have been taking place among most of the teams with genuine hopes in the 44 edition of the Rally Islas Canarias. The French Ford team is now leading the race, ahead of its countrymen Bonato-Boulloud and of Ares-Vázquez. In the national part, the Galician Hyundai team stayed ahead of Suárez-Iglesisas, who ranked first in the Spanish Rally Super-Championship after the odyssey of Solans-Moreno.

Complete upside down turn in the ranking of the Rally Islas Canarias in its 44 edition. Adrien Fourmaux and Renaud Jamoul (Ford Fiesta R5 MKII) were proclaimed the new leaders after a chaotic start in the second leg, which have left several wounds of war among the hot favourites. Nil Solans and Xavi Moreno (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) had to complete two entire stages with a flat tire after a double puncture in Gáldar. This fact pushed him back to the fifteenth position at the end of the four stages of this loop.

Iván Ares and David Vázquez (Hyundai i20 R5), leaders after the first leg, also suffered the harshness of this section, which once again was fought in the rain. Although they got a flat tire in Gáldar and suffered two incidents in the last stages, they managed to resist and keep the third position, one minute away from Fourmaux, and also become the first team in the Spanish Tarmac Rally Championship (CERA). 

So far, the Rally Islas Canarias has been commanded by the French teams, since Yoann Bonato-Benjamin Boulloud (Citroën C3 R5) are holding the second place, 33.4'' away from their countrymen. Oliver Solberg-Aaron Johnston (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5), who are more used to the current conditions of the Canarian roads this weekend, have rapidly climbed up the ranking and reached the fourth position, 35'' away from Ares. Right behind, the Asturians José Antonio Suárez-Alberto Iglesias (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) compete for the title of the Spanish Tarmac Rally Championship – a part in which they already hold the second place, in spite of having arrived with their car damaged to the service area at the Gran Canaria Stadium.

As leader of the provisional ranking of the ERC, Alexey Lukyanuk has been able to score a scratch in Arucas and finish in the sixth position, 2.5'' away from Suárez. Behind him, Luis Monzón-José Carlos Déniz (Citroën C3 R5) got the seventh place with more than two minutes from the leader and now hold a podium place in the national ranking. Followed by Andreas Mikkelsen-Anders Jaeger (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) and the Irish Callum Devine-James Fulton (Hyundai i20 R5) and Craig Breen-Paul Nagle (Hyundai i20 R5), who hold the ninth and tenth place respectively.

With Fourmaux at the top position of the overall and therefore of the ERC1 Junior, in the ERC3 Junior Pep Bassas and Áxel Coronado completed the section in a miraculous way. Their Peugeot 208 Rally4 was badly damaged due to an accident in the SS11, but they still keep leading with more than four minutes advantage over Kern Torn, who also arrived with his ‘injured’ Ford Fiesta Rally4. In the ERC2, Tibor Erdi imposed the four-wheel drive of his  Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X in order to take the lead in this category.

The last section will be repeating the two runs through the special stages ‘Valleseco-DISA’ (14.17 km), ‘Gáldar’ (12.4 km), ‘Moya’ (12.63 km) and ‘Arucas’ (11.85 km). This last stage could be decisive for the results of the Spanish Tarmac Rally Championship since it is the SS+ of this rally.

 

 

 

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