Lopez takes Canary Islands Rally victory, French podium in ERC3

No, José Maria Lopez in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and its namesake in the European Rally Championship (ERC) are not related. Moreover, the rallyman is nicknamed “Pepe López” in the service parks. The Spaniard did better than the Argentinian on Saturday May 4 by winning the Rally from the Canary Islands (Spain) with his co-pilot Borja Rozada. 

Our 1-2-3 on the podium#FIAERC #RallyIslasCanarias pic.twitter.com/IwsvkFxabt

— FIA ERC (@FIAERC) 4th May 2019

The Iberian becomes the first representative from the country of Cervantes to achieve success in the ERC since Enrique García Ojeda in 2007. At the time, the competition was called Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC)!

José Maria Lopez (Citroën) engaged in a duel with Alexey Lukyanuk (Citroën), until the Russian broke his left front suspension at the start of the second stage. “Last year it was difficult because I didn't have many opportunities, recalls José Maria Lopez, who controlled his lead during the final stages.

When you have an advantage of more than 30 seconds, it's rather difficult to concentrate on the co-driver's notes, specifies the winner. This is the best moment of my career! » He is accompanied on the podium by Ingram-Whittock (Skoda) and Habaj-Dymurski (Skoda). The latter take the lead in the general classification, eight points ahead of Ingram-Whittock. 

On the French side, Pierre-Louis Loubet and Vincent Landais (Skoda) finished in fifth place. In ERC3, we only saw the tricolor flag on the podium! Florian Bernardi and Victor Bellotto (Renault) won the category ahead of Yohan Rossel-Benoît Fucrand (Peugeot ) and Jean-Baptiste Franceschi-Anthony Gorguilo (Ford).

#ERC3 podium!#RallyIslasCanarias #FIAERC pic.twitter.com/PuA2QdRKWV

— FIA ERC (@FIAERC) 4th May 2019

Find the summary of the ERC in the Canaries in issue 2215 of AUTOhebdo, available Monday evening digitally and Wednesday on newsstands.