Ogier stands firm as Solberg gaps his team-mates – DirtFish

Sébastien Ogier leads Rally Islas Canarias by 8.6 seconds after Friday’s leg of action, with Oliver Solberg emerging as his closest rival.

Ogier started Friday down in sixth place (albeit just 1.4s off the lead) following the superspecial inside Gran Canaria Stadium, but immediately hit the front after the first full-length stage.

Repeating the trick on SS4 (SS3 was cancelled due to badly parked spectator cars), the reigning world champion extended his advantage to 5.9s as the Toyotas pulled clear of the rest.

All that changed in the afternoon were the gaps between, and order of, those GR Yaris Rally1s.

Solberg won the first stage in the afternoon by just a single tenth over Ogier to jump from fourth to second place, ahead of team-mates Sami Pajari and Elfyn Evans.

The Frenchman and the Swede continued to outpace the other Toyotas on SS6 with Ogier beating Solberg by 0.2s. Ogier was again fastest on SS7 (by a more emphatic two seconds) as Evans shuffled ahead of Pajari by just 1.3s.

Pajari, however, responded on the superspecial that concluded the day, moving back into third by half a second.