The real rally started with the qualifying stage held on Friday afternoon in "Puerto del Carmen", a 4.2 km stretch, where the Norwegian Henning Solberg, co-piloted by the Italian Giovanni Bernacchini, achieved the best time in this stage, which serves to "warm up the engines" and establish the starting order for this Saturday.
The Citroen C3 Rally2 of Sport&You marked a 2.34.7, one second and one tenth ahead of the Canarian team Juan Carlos Quintana-Yeray Mujica with the Skoda Fabia Rally2, whose time was 2.35.9. Third, and 2.8 seconds behind the winner, was the second of the Citoren C3 Rallys2, led by the Portuguese Bernardo de Sousa-Vito Calado. Next was the pilot from Fuerteventura, Gustavo Sosa, with Edu González as co-pilot, with another Skoda Fabia Rally2.
Fifth and first of the Prot4x4 vehicles would be the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo of Esteban Feo-Jesús Alonso. And in sixth position, Daniel Guerra-Sergio Vera finished the stage, just two tenths of a second behind the previous ones with the Subaru Impreza, but with the great joy of becoming the new champions of the Canary Islands Rallys on Dirt, since they only needed to start to virtually take the title.
Two teams did not finish this stage, numbers 11 and 15 of Pedro Cuarental and Feluco Pérez, a setback that is already being solved by their assistance teams for Saturday's round. On the other hand, a quad and five cars did not show up for the test and are numbers: 17, 23, 25, 31, 32 and 103. Therefore, there will be 32 teams that will pass the starting ceremony.
At 7:00 p.m. in the evening-night, the starting ceremony will begin, after the briefing (6:30 p.m.) of the race direction with the rally pilots and co-pilots. A little before starting, the pilots who have performed the "Qualifity" will choose the starting order (6:15 p.m.) for tomorrow's round in the timed sections.
There will also be a small tribute to the memory of the pilot Paco Romero, winner of the Lanzarote test on five occasions and recently deceased, with the participation of all the pilots and co-pilots of this rally.
On Saturday, the test starts from the assistance area in the Arrecife Fairgrounds, starting at 8:05 with the BP-Puerto del Carmen-Mácher sections. The CASTROL-Tabayesco Mala section complements the route, and the NAVIERA ARMAS-Tinajo-Las Betancoras section closes the test at 5:20 p.m., whose previous pass will be the TC Plus. Final arrival at the finish line in the Islas Canarias Park of Arrecife next, plus arrival ceremony and awards ceremony.
Although it appears in the itinerary, the "Yaiza-Tías" section is one of those that cannot be disputed on this occasion. In total, there will be eight timed sections to be held, of which three are different. Without a doubt, they are the most anticipated sections for their assured spectacularity.
