Yeray Lemes and Aitor Cambeiro went to sleep this Friday night with the peace of mind of being the leaders of the Rallysprint Yaiza for another year, dominating the two stages of the cold night with their Porsche 911 GT3, setting the best times with 4:34.7 and 4:34.2, almost identical in both directions and giving them an overall lead of 7.7 seconds over their closest rivals.
These were Toñín Suárez-Jorge Cedrés with the second Porsche 911 GT3, who continue to improve their driving and were happy because this year their times were closer to those of the leaders.
The provisional podium was completed in third position by Álvaro Caballero-Noé González in their debut with a Citroen C3 Rally2, which they drove for the first time, setting reasonable times that will surely improve as the day progresses.
In this part of the standings should also be the other Citroen of Óscar and Nerea Cabrera, but nerves played them a trick, first stalling the C3 at the start of TC1 and then going straight on at one of the chicanes. This Saturday they will have to make up ground from eighth position.
This circumstance led to the fourth place finish last night for Juan Carlos de la Cruz, with Edu González to his right, who once again took the wheel of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and, judging by the times achieved, was very comfortable with his driving.
Fifth place went to the pilot of the year in Lanzarote, Yoday Betancort, with his sister Daniela as co-pilot, debuting their recent title in the Rally4 Cup Canarias with the Peugeot 208. Bad luck for his category teammate, Daniel Pérez, who on TC2 suffered a road exit that left his car battered when a public lamppost fell on it.
The now virtual champions of the Canary Islands Rallysprint, Edgar Camacho-José Carballo, also had no luck, suffering a breakdown in TC2 in their VW Golf
Seven teams had problems at the start of the test, although most of them will return to the rallysprint today, once the breakdowns suffered are repaired overnight
The competition began on Friday afternoon with checks in Playa Blanca's Plaza del Carmen, followed by the first two night stages. Two stages that saw 31 of the 38 vehicles that started pass without incident. Oliver Rodríguez, who had registered with a Rally2, was absent from this preliminary procedure.
Then the action would kick off at 9 PM on the well-known Las Casitas-Femés-Las Breñas stage (8.6 km), continuing this Saturday with another four runs (two in each direction), starting at 10:30 AM, 11:30 AM, 2:30 PM, and 3:30 PM.
The town of Uga is also a protagonist, as its fairgrounds serve as the base for the organization and the service park for the cars and teams. Furthermore, after completing the two stages, the organization offered the traditional popular paella for all participants, team members, officials, marshals, and members of the organization, as well as for the fans who came to Uga. A paella prepared on-site thanks to the collaboration of Luis from the Chiringuito Tropical in Playa Blanca
