Alexey Lukyanuk moved to the front of the FIA European Rally Championship order after the first three stages of Rally Islas Canarias, battling a pair of ERC1 Junior stars in R5 cars for first place.
Qualifying Stage winner Pepe López took an early lead aboard his Citroën Rally Team C3 R5 by winning SS1, with Team OSCARO-backed Pierre-Louis Loubet making it a 1-2 for ERC1 Junior drivers in the overall classification.
But Saintéloc Racing’s main man Lukyanuk found an extra turn of pace on SS2 and SS3, winning both to propel himself to a 3.7s lead over ERC1 Junior leader López after Tejeda, the longest stage of the rally.
Loubet meanwhile suffered a suspected transmission failure to the front-right corner of his ŠKODA Fabia, dropping him to eighth place overall.
Iván Ares was off the pace on SS2 and had dropped down to ninth, 8.9s off Lukyanuk’s pace. But the Hyundai Motor España driver quickly rebounded on Tejeda, going third fastest to finish the loop in third, 23s behind Lukyanuk.
Ares leads a large pack of cars challenging for the final podium spot, with Baumschlager Rallye & Racing’s Marijan Griebel, a champion in both ERC1 Junior and ERC3 Junior, closest behind.
Griebel climbed his way up from seventh to fourth place, ending the first loop of leg one only 0.6s behind Ares.
Chris Ingram was also picking his way up the order from ninth to fifth, taking second in ERC1 Junior once Loubet suffered his transmission woes and sitting only 0.4s behind Griebel.
Norbert Herczig remains in podium contention as well, the MOL Racing Team pilot 3.2s behind Ares. Also in the mix is current ERC championship leader Łukasz Habaj, 4.7s off Ares in third place.
Rally Team Spain’s José Suárez, a graduate of the ERC1 Junior Championship, had been in the thick of the podium battle until a delaminated front tyre on Tejada cost him around a minute. Having been fifth before the longest stage of the event, Suárez dropped down to P16.
Behind eighth-placed Loubet, reigning ERC2 champion Tibor Érdi Jr. shot up from P14 to ninth overall on the Tejeda stage, passing several of the Spanish championship regulars when doing so.
Local hero Luis Monzón, a three-time Canary Islands champion, completes the top 10 in his Ford Fiesta R5.
Source: ERC