Monzon leader in the Canaries, Bonato in ambush

94 competitors set off this morning from Las Palmas to continue the first stage started the day before during the super special run at night near the city center. Three times representing 47,51 km were to be run before returning to the service park. Provisional leader, Simon Wagner was unable to maintain his advantage and even disappeared from the proceedings following a collision (SS3) causing the race to fall 29 minutes late. Winner of the qualification yesterday, veteran (56 years old) Luis Monzon relied on his 31 previous participations (3 successes) to take command, surprising the main players in the championship. Winner in the Azores, Efren Llarena occasionally held the lead after SS2 before falling back to 3^e at 13s8 from the first.

Celebrating his 39th birthday today, Yoann Bonato would have liked to give himself a nice gift, but the Frenchman has to settle for 2^e provisional rank 8s9 behind Monzon. “ My driving was not perfect during the long specialhe explained. The car and tires behaved very well, but I need to apply myself more. » For his part, Nil Solans who won in Fafe could not do better than 5^e (at 15s1) revealing his difficulties in fully exploiting his Polo R5. Author of a convincing morning including a 6^e time in SS4, Manu Guigou installed his A110 at 8^e rank (+24s9). Less success on the other hand for the other Alpine of Raphaël Astier guilty of an elimination touch (SS4). Finally, in the close match between Anthony Fotia (Clio) and Laurent Pellier (Corsa) in RC4, the advantage goes to the first city which has a 1s2 margin. The same loop of three stages will be repeated at the end of the afternoon. THE rally having accumulated a delay, the initial schedules are postponed by 12 minutes. (SS5: 16:49 p.m., SS6: 18:07 p.m. and SS7: 18:52 p.m.).