The three-time event winner steered his Škoda Fabia Rally2 through the 3.89km warm-up test 0.5sec faster than his nearest rivals as under one-second blanketed the top five.
Monzón - born in the rally’s host city of Las Palmas - last claimed victory here in 2007. His winning time means he gets prime choice of his road position at the start order selection, which takes place from 1730hrs today.
“It’s good for me, but I knew this stage very well,” explained the 56-year-old. “I have a house and little motorcycle track [on the stage] and I know the end of the route very well, so it was easier for me to get a good time.
“The real rally starts tomorrow,” he continued. “Tomorrow it will be different and I will try to get a good result, but it’s very difficult to win here.
“All the drivers are very fast and if you lose even five seconds, for the driver it’s a real headache because it’s very difficult to get the time back,” he added.
Azores Rallye winner Efrén Llarena set an identical time to his Team MRF Tyres team-mate Simone Campedelli as the Škoda pair completed the leading trio.
Enrique Cruz - another former winner - was only one-tenth slower than Campedelli in his Ford Fiesta Rally2, with Tarmac titan Simon Wagner a mere 0.06sec further back in his Fabia.
Wagner clinched a maiden ERC podium at round two and has been tipped as a victory favourite on the Canarian asphalt.
Sixth place went to Grzegorz Grzyb’s Pirelli-shod Škoda. The Pole ended 0.5sec down on Wagner and just 0.046sec clear of Yoann Bonato, who has brought his Citroën C3 Rally2 out to play for the first time this season.
Comeback king Nil Solans could only muster eighth with his Volkswagen Polo, while Fabia friends Alberto Battistolli and Javier Pardo rounded off the leaderboard.
The rally begins later this evening with an opening superspecial stage based around the edge of the Las Palmas service park.
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