Skoda driver Jan Kopecky holds lead of Rally Islas Canarias at end of day one
Jan Kopecky will lead Rally Islas Canarias into the final day after Andreas Mikkelsen backed off to fall behind his rival on the last of Friday's stages
Championship leader Mikkelsen had hung on in front despite a quick off-road moment on stage seven, but decided he would prefer to let factory Skoda driver Kopecky run first on the road on Saturday's deciding stages, so took the concluding Gran Canaria go-kart track stage steadily. The two Skodas - Mikkelsen in a Skoda UK-run example - will start Saturday just 1.2 seconds apart.
Set-up changes helped Luis Monzon (Canarias Sport Club Peugeot) to cement his third place by pulling away from the chasing Hermann Gassner Jr (Red Bull Skoda), establishing a 21s cushion.
Sepp Wiegand is now more secure in fifth place having both cured a misfire on his Skoda Auto Deutschland Fabia and benefited from sparring partner Alberto Hevia retiring on the road section before SS8.
Leading positions after SS9: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Jan Kopecky Skoda 1h22m56.3s 2. Andreas Mikkelsen Skoda UK + 1.2s 3. Luis Monzon Canarias Peugeot + 1m40.8s 4. Hermann Gassner Jr Red Bull Skoda + 2m01.1s 5. Sepp Wiegand Skoda Deutschland + 2m21.6s 6. Jonathan Perez AMP Classic Peugeot + 3m55.6s 7. Joan Vinyes Suzuki Iberica + 5m04.2s 8. Oleksii Tamrazov Ukraine Ford + 5m20.8s 9. Gorka Antxustegi Suzuki Iberica + 5m27.9s 10. Angel Marrero Aterura Honda + 6m00.1s
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