Subject to FIA World Motor Sport Council approval, Rally Islas Canarias will host the WRC in 2025 and 2026 following its planned graduation from the ERC, its ever-present home since 2016. And Evans, who recced the route of the 48th edition of the Tarmac event alongside co-driver Scott Martin, can’t wait to take to the challenging stages for real next year.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT driver said: “Stage-wise they’re quite nice, quite different to what we do now. Since Catalunya has gone from the calendar there’s no true, racy asphalt rally anymore. Gran Canaria is definitely offering that with very little cutting, [so] it would be a nice addition. It should be a close fought event, we already saw in the ERC the times were pretty close.”
Yoann Bonato took victory on round two of the ERC season from 2 - 4 May with a winning margin of 2.8sec over Mathieu Franceschi, while Alejandro Cachón, Diego Ruiloba and José Antonio Suárez were covered by 5.6sec in their battle for third place.
Previous winner López already aiming high
Pepe López says he will do all he can to be on the Rally Islas Canarias starting line next season. The winner of the 2019 running of the ERC counter (below), has claimed two FIA WRC2 podiums already this season and will be one to watch when the WRC visits host city Las Palmas for the first time in 2025.
“As you can imagine I try to plan something even if my resources are not too big, I just try to be there to show my skills,” López said. “Canarias is one of these places in the world that loves rallying and when the WRC comes there the atmosphere will be phenomenal, the stages are quite different from the other Tarmac rallies so it will be a challenge for all the drivers and teams. It will be a very good event and if I won the lottery for sure I will do it in a Rally1 car.”
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