The competition calendar for next year has not yet been finalised, but it is already clear that the series will return to Spain. However, this time it will not be in Catalonia but in the Canary Islands.
The Rally Islas Canarias has a long tradition in the European Rally Championship, but it has never been part of the WRC calendar. WRC points will be contested on the island of Gran Canaria in 2025 and 2026.
The last time WRC points were contested in Spain was in the Salou region, an hour’s drive from Barcelona. The Rally Catalunya was a pure tarmac event, where the driving was very “circuit-like.”
Conditions in the Canary Islands are similar. These are the kind of special stages that have been missed in the WRC, admits Toyota star Elfyn Evans.
“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,” Evans says on the ERC website.
“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,” the Welshman continues.
The ERC Rally Islas Canarias, held at the beginning of May, was won by Frenchman Yoann Bonato with a narrow margin of 2.8 seconds over his compatriot Mathieu Franceschi.
Spanish driver Pepe Lopez is eager to be on the starting line for the historic first WRC Rally Islas Canarias. Currently competing in the WRC2 class, Lopez celebrated his ERC rally victory in the popular tourist destination in 2019.
“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,” Lopez knows.
“It will be a very good event and if I won the lottery for sure I will do it in a Rally1 car,” Lopez joked.
