Argomenti trattati
The opening full day of Rally Islas Canarias unfolded as a showcase for Toyota on the island’s high-grip roads, with Sébastien Ogier emerging with an 8.9-second overnight advantage. The event combined a fan-facing stadium test with longer mountain stages, and the result was a striking demonstration of a manufacturer locking down the summit of the classification: all five Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 crews were inside the leading positions by the end of the day.
Organisers had added a short spectacle stage around the Gran Canaria stadium to kick off the rally, followed by a sequence of mountain tests that separated drivers by tenths and seconds rather than minutes. The weekend structure included a pre-event shakedown to dial in setups and two passes through a trio of stages on the first full day, plus a second trip around the stadium to close the loop. Those tight margins and repeated runs increased the premium on setup, tyre choices and consistency.
Toyota dominance and Ogier’s edge
The Japanese squad controlled the leaderboard through a mix of strong pace and disciplined tyre work. Sébastien Ogier claimed the lead early after winning the second competitive test and extended his margin during a morning loop that lost a stage to cancellation. In the afternoon the fight sharpened: Oliver Solberg briefly split the pair by taking a stage by 0.1 seconds, only for Ogier to strike back with a 0.2-second stage win. Late in the day Ogier added two seconds on a mountain test and another 0.3 seconds in the closing stadium run, producing the 8.9s buffer at service.
Stage-by-stage tight margins
Those tiny time swings underline how close the competition is on this type of event. Multiple stages were decided by tenths, and the order shuffled subtly as crews chased the ideal compromise between outright grip and tyre life. The team’s GR Yaris Rally1 cars filled the top five, with experience, set-up decisions and tyre management all playing clear roles. Takamoto Katsuta, who had started with the overnight stadium advantage, ultimately settled into fifth and trailed Ogier by 29.7 seconds, illustrating how quickly fortunes can evolve over repeated stages.
Hyundai and M-Sport: balance problems and repairs
While Toyota enjoyed consistent handling, rivals struggled to find harmony with their cars on Gran Canaria’s smooth asphalt. Hyundai crews reported a narrow operating window for the i20 N Rally1, making the car difficult to place precisely through fast, cambered turns. Dani Sordo emerged as the best of the Hyundai drivers in sixth, despite a light contact with a barrier that cost time in one mountain test. He finished the day 52.0 seconds behind the leader, with Adrien Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville close behind in seventh and eighth.
Understeer, setup changes and two-wheel drive issues
M-Sport Ford also endured a testing day. Both Ford Puma Rally1 entries wrestled with understeer and a lack of balance that prevented drivers from committing to the same ideal lines as the Toyotas. Jon Armstrong clipped an armco barrier and later suffered a transmission fault that left him running on two-wheel drive heading into the stadium super special. Josh McErlean recovered from an off that cost around 40 seconds to post ninth overall, while Armstrong was down in 11th after accumulating time losses through incidents and mechanical setbacks.
WRC2 leaderboard and what’s next
In the secondary category, the pace belonged to Lancia-backed Yohan Rossel, who finished the Friday stages with a healthy margin of 22.0 seconds over home driver Alejandro Cachón in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. Toyota Spain’s entry and TGR’s young drivers, including Yuki Yamamoto, also showed competitive form in WRC2, with Yamamoto running well inside the top ten of the class. The structure of the rally means crews must now convert that opening speed into clean runs over the next loop.
Action resumes with another set of six stages forming around 112 competitive kilometres, offering fresh chances to attack or to consolidate. With margins measured in single-digit seconds at the top of the standings, the weekend will reward teams that can maintain balance, manage tyres and stay mistake-free on Gran Canaria’s flowing asphalt.