Simon Wagner and Gerald Winter (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) have become the first leaders of the 46th Rally Islas Canarias edition. The Austrian team achieved the best time in the super special stage ‘Las Palmas de Gran Canaria-DISA’, which has given the kick-off to this third round of the FIA European Rally Championship and second of the Canarian Rally Championship on Tarmac.

It has only taken them one minute, eight seconds and six tenth of a second to cover the one and a half kilometres of this short super special stage surrounding the outside of the Gran Canaria Stadium and the Gran Canaria Arena, that has been followed up live by thousands of fans. On Friday, they will make a good use of their 0.7’’ advantage over the Italians Alberto Battistolli-Simone Scattolin (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) and their 0.9’’ ahead Nil Solans-Marc Martí (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5). The winner of the Rally Serras de Fafe e Felgueiras was the fastest Spanish team.

Other teams with chances of winning this rally like Simone Campedelli-Tania Canton (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo), Simone Tempestini-Sergiu Itu (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo), Norbert Herczig-Igor Bacigál (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) and Yoann Bonato-Benjamin Boulloud hold the positions between fourth and seventh.

It is not until the 13th position that we can find Luis Monzón-José Carlos Déniz (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo), who achieved the best time in the qualifying stage and finished this super special stage 2.8’’ away from Wagner. Leaders of the Regional Rally Championship are Enrique Cruz-Yeray Mujica (Ford Fiesta Rally2) 1.4’’ behind and Miguel Suárez-Eduardo González (Citroën C2 Rally2) 1.8’’.

In the different categories of the ERC, both Renault Clio Rally4 from Anthony Fotia-Arnaud Noël and Andrea Mabellini-Virginia Lenzi ended in a tie leading the race. The Italian team also leads the ERC4. The leg on Friday 13th May will consist of two rounds for the stages ‘Valsequillo’ (11.91 km), ‘Santa Lucía’ (14.82 km) and ‘Tejeda’ (20,78 km). The teams will set off from the service park of the Gran Canaria Stadium from 9:00 am onwards. All special stages of the 46th Rally Islas Canarias edition will be broadcasted live through WRC+.