Yeray Lemes-Aitor Cambeiro dominated the IV Yaiza Rallysprint in their usual Porsche 911 GT3 sporting new colors, after an initial lead by Toñín Suárez-Kimberly González with another Porsche 911, who moved into second place from T2 on Friday night, the second step of the podium where they eventually finished the race. Alfredo Guerra-Lara Curbelo finished third, putting in a good performance with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. With these results, Yeray and Aitor are crowned champions of Lanzarote before the island competition ends in a month's time with the Orvecame Rally, having in fact won all the asphalt events on their island and again today in Yaiza in a clear manner by those 23 seconds in their favor.
The event organized by CD. Evesport and promoted by the Yaiza Town Council concluded at around three o'clock this Saturday afternoon, with the finish in the Plaza del Carmen in Playa Blanca, where the prize-giving ceremony then took place, followed by a large crowd, as the fans' section was also packed both at night and on Saturday.
After the exchange of scratch times between the two favorite drivers for the victory in Yaiza, in the first two sections of Saturday morning, the situation began to be controlled by Yeray Lemes-Aitor Cambeiro with the Porsche 911 GT3, setting the two best times of the section in the Las Casitas-Las Breñas direction, with records of 4.30.2 and improving to 4.28.1 in the next one. In this way, they consolidated the lead reached at night and at this point in the rallysprint their advantage increased to 11.5 seconds over the other Porsche 911 GT3 of Toñín Suárez-Kimberly González, who continued in second place both in the partials and in the general standings, after losing 2.8 and 3.8 seconds respectively to the leaders in the two passes.
There were still the last two sections in the opposite direction Las Breñas-Femés-Las Casitas, but with the difference increased to 16.3 seconds after TC5, the victory, barring unforeseen circumstances, was totally inclined towards Lemes-Cambeiro, after again setting the best time in 4.30.7 and again beating Toñín by 4.8, who, seeing the impossibility of fighting for the victory, also took a more conservative pace.
Yeray does not let up and lowered his previous time to 4.29.4, 6.9 better than Toñín's record in this final section of the Yaiza Rallysprint, so the differences between the first two classified were 23.2 seconds. Lemes and Cambeiro won in five of the six passes held and only missed the first one of the night, when the additional headlight grille was disconnected.
Changes on the third step of the podium
The third place on the provisional podium was still in the hands of Alvaro Caballero-Noé González with the M3, who after supporting the Porsche 911s in TC3, gave up that position in TC4 to the Mitsubishi Lancer of Alfredo Guerra-Lara Curbelo, although in the overall standings the BMWs were still solid in third place as were the Evo Xs in fourth place overall.
But luck was elusive for those called to continue third, because an unthinkable breakage of the driveshaft in the BMW M3 left them out of the rallysprint when they were already running TC5, i.e. the section in the Las Breñas-Las Casillas direction. Position that will be occupied by their pursuers Alfredo Guerra-Lara Curbelo.
In this TC4 the Nissan Micra team, Iriome Curbelo-Juan Cabrera, were unlucky, as they had a road exit and the organization of the CD. Evesport had to neutralize the section for the rest of the participants. In principle, an incident without major consequences for the driver and co-driver.
This unexpected withdrawal moved the following classified teams up one position in the overall standings, moving Yoday and Daniela Betancort with the Peugeot 208 into fourth place, just 12 seconds from the podium, continuing their good progress in their third race with the Rally4 and winning the trophy in category 2. Fifth position for Víctor Afonso-Luis Hernández with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, who went from less to more throughout the different passes to the 6.7 km "Las Casitas-Femés-Las Breñas" section, winning category 3 in the process.
Already in sixth place was the Renault Clio Cup of Jonás and Ainara Rodríguez, winners in Group F and only 9 seconds behind the previous ones and only two ahead of the BMW 325i of Jorge Guillén-Alexander Barrios, seventh overall. Yacora Betancort-Javier Padrón with the SEAT León Cupra reached the eighth position and also the trophy of category 1. In the group of the Classics, the best was another BMW 320 of Luis Duque-Achén Perdomo.
In total, 32 teams were classified in this fourth edition of the Yaiza Rallysprint, in which 37 vehicles out of the 38 entered took the start.
The night of Yaiza
The fourth edition of the Yaiza Rallysprint started on Friday night with the dispute of the first two sections of the total of six programmed by the organization of the CD. Evesport. Two passes that were won by the two teams with Porsche 911 favorites to the final victory. The first one downhill was scored by the pair Toñín Suárez-Kimberly González, with a time of 4.42.7, beating Yeray Lemes-Aitor Cambeiro by 1.2, becoming the first leaders of the rallysprint.
Lemes justified his worse time by having a problem with the additional headlight grille, but in the second pass going up towards Uga, he made up for it with the best time and scored 4.35.9, cutting 6.1 seconds to Suárez, which meant a change of leader and Lemes-Cambeiro, sporting new colors in the decoration of his mount, took the lead in the provisional overall standings by 4.8 seconds over Suárez-González. In short, the night of the Yaiza Rallysprint was dominated by an exchange of scratch times between the two main candidates for the victory.
The third place on the provisional nocturnal podium is for the BMW M3 of Alvaro Caballero-Noé González, but already 38.8 from the head of the classification, with Yoday and Daniela Betancort very close at 9.8 seconds in fourth place overall with the Peugeot 208 Rally4. The fifth place is occupied after the first two TC, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X of Alfredo Guerra-Lara Curbelo.
Hardly any incidents in this nocturnal part, except for several penalties to the vehicles that touched in the several chicanes interposed in the longest straights of the 6.7 km section. And the breakdown of number 15 Nauzet de León (R-5 GT Turbo driveshaft).
The event was preceded by the scrutineering in Playa Blanca with a great atmosphere of public, which later moved to the section of La Breña-Femés-Las Casillas, which had a large number of fans eager to see the evolution of the cars in the middle of the night, on this occasion less dark with the help of the impressive full moon. And after the completion last night of the competition, all the participants and members of the organization tasted one more year the popular paella offered by Evesport and made by Chef Luis, from the Chiringuito Tropical Restaurant of Playa Blanca, who each year surpasses himself in the elaboration of this stew over a wood fire and with more than 22 kilos of rice that gave dinner to more than 150 people.
The Town Council of Yaiza and the Cabildo of Lanzarote support to the maximum one more year this rallysprint that is already consolidating in Lanzarote and as one of the most important events of the year in Yaiza, under the organization of the CD. Evesport and scoring for both the Las Palmas Championship of the modality and for the Insular Championship of Lanzarote.