Canary Islands Rally – SS1: First stage win for Katsuta, Daprà 3nd with a Rally2

It became fashionable in WRC : the Rally The Canary Islands Rally, the fifth round of the season, opened with a rather unusual special stage. To experience the smooth asphalt of the Spanish archipelago, the crews will have to wait for the first leg, held on Friday, April 24th. As an appetizer, they were treated to a first special stage run in the Gran Canaria stadium, which usually hosts the Las Palmas football team (Spanish second division).

In the Iberian arena, it was a Japanese driver who proved the most skillful: Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), the man in top form at the moment, continued his momentum by setting the first fastest time of the week in 1:54.2. The championship leader went last in this duel format, which pits two crews against each other, where he faced off against Adrien fourmaux and Alexandre Coria. The French duo were a little less successful with the 6th fastest time, 1,4 seconds behind the leaders.

For Toyota, it was a convincing start to the rally, with Sami Pajari taking second place, just four-tenths of a second behind Takamoto Katsuta. The podium was completed by the surprising Roberto Daprà in his Skoda Fabia Rally2. The Italian, second in WRC2 at Monte Carlo, pulled off a great result, being the only driver besides Sami Pajari to finish less than a second behind Katsuta (+0,8 s). The top five was rounded out by Dani Sordo, the guest driver for Hyundaiand Josh McErlean in his Ford Puma.

To find traces of Sébastien OgierHaving returned after missing the Rally Croatia, he had to drop to 6th place. No cause for concern, however: the nine-time world champion and his co-driver Vincent Landais are only 1,4 seconds behind the leaders, within the same tenth of a second as Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria.

It should be noted that the teammates of the Gapençais and Katsuta – Elfyn Evans and Oliver Solberg – were particularly discreet with the 9th (+1,9 s) and 10th (+2,0 s) times respectively, but the gaps remain tiny between the Rally1s.

In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin and Léo Rossel completed the podium within the same tenth of a second, 2,5 seconds behind Roberto Dapra. Éric Camilli finished 23rd in the special stage, 6,7 seconds off the pace.

Join us on Friday for the next seven special stages, starting at 9:20 am, to be followed live with commentary on AUTOhebdo.fr.

ALSO READ > Canary Islands Rally – SS1: First stage win for Katsuta, Daprà 2nd with a Rally2

WRC – Canary Islands Rally
The classification of SS1