Lukyanuk and Gryazin consolidate ERC Canarias leads

Behind stage 10 winner Gryazin, Fabian Kreim and José Suárez’s battle for third overall and second in ERC Junior U28 resumed, as Kreim edged further ahead from 2.9s to 4.5s. However, Suárez replied in Leg Two’s longest test, the 24.21 kilometre Galdar test, regaining 1.0s to keep Kreim in his sights.

Laurent Pellier was a man on the move this morning, setting a trio of top five stages time to pass a struggling Bruno Magalhães for sixth place in SS9. Pellier then inherited fifth overall and fourth in ERC Junior U28 when Team OSCARO-backed compatriot Pierre-Louis Loubet dropped out, his car suddenly grinding to a standstill in the road section between SS10 and SS11.

Grzegorz Grzyb also made his way past a frustrated Magalhães for what became sixth place after Loubet’s retirement. A pop-off valve issue and a less than idea setup had already set Magalhães on the back foot yesterday afternoon, and those issues carried over into Leg Two, dropping him to seventh.

It wasn’t all bad news for Magalhães however, as he passed Norbert Herczig in SS11. The Mol Racing Team driver’s tyres ran out of grip with several kilometres of the Galdar test still to go, ending 26.7s off stage winner Lukyanuk’s pace. That time loss relegated him to ninth, and promoted Iván Ares to eighth.

Eyvind Brynildsen moved up to tenth place, but struggled with understeer due to a suspected differential problem. Further down the order, Dávid Botka had been running P18 but has withdrawn from the rally, feeling unwell after completing SS10.