Motorsport: Josh McErlean crash puts end to top 10 finish on Rally Islas Canarias

Irish Examiner

27-04-2025

Josh McErlean's bid for a top ten finish on Rally Islas Canarias, round four of the World Rally Championship ended on the first stage of the final leg when he crashed his Ford Puma Rally1 against an Armco barrier. The event belonged to Finland's Kalle Rovanpera and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), who rediscovered their form and with fifteen stage wins (from eighteen stages) have moved from sixth in the series to second - behind their team mates and series leaders Welsh ace Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin. The Toyota Gazoo Racing Team locked out the top four places with Sebastien Ogier finishing 53.5s behind Rovanpera and Japan's Takamoto Katsuta and his Northern Ireland co-driver Aaron Johnson completing the top quartet.
Saturday's leg saw Rovanpera tighten his grip on the rally with another masterful display as he continued to impose his authority that yielded six fastest times from the seven stages with a lead of 45.2s in a Toyota GR Yaris top four. Only series leader Elfyn Evans prevented Rovanpera from completing a clean sweep of top stage times over two days when he was best on the super special inside the Gran Canaria Arena.
Sebastien Ogier consolidated second spot with Evans third. As the day concluded with Toyota holding the top five positions, Finland's Sami Pajari understeered into a wooden barrier on a left hander on the penultimate stage and damaged the front right wing of his Yaris. Katsuta subsequently inherited fourth to complete a Toyota top quartet. Rally leader Rovanpera said, "It's going really well, we made some really small changes to the car this afternoon and I felt even better than in the morning, so that was nice."
Despite stalling on the final stage of the day, Adrien Fourmaux in fifth was best of the Hyundai outfit after both Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak continued to struggle with set-up issues. Gregoire Munster lost over three minutes when his Ford Puma Rally1 ran wide and beached itself and was eventually pushed back on the road by several spectators and combined with Pajari's retirement, saw McErlean/Treacy move into 10th.
Following the morning opener McErlean said, "The surface was changing quite a lot there. Just tried to trust the grip and keep on learning. We had one surprise against an Armco."
Later and with the car having difficulty turning-in, they disconnected the front anti-toll bar to improve the handling. But, it all went wrong after just 4.9km of the opening stage of the final leg when their Ford Puma Rally1 crashed into the Armco barrier. Apologising for his mistake, he said, "It's been difficult from the start, we began to make small progress over the three days with the whole package. It's a big shame what happened today, a little too-ambitious pacenote meant we carried too much speed and ran wide into an Armco. We have learnt a lot about the car and my own driving this weekend. I look forward to getting back on the gravel now and into more familiar territory, everything should come a little more naturally and we can push on from here.'
Rovanpera took the maximum 35 points from the event. "It's quite amazing, it has not been the best start of the season, but we are definitely, at least in these kinds of conditions, we are back now. The cars were so fast. I enjoyed it - a super result for the whole team.'
Evans' consistency gave him his fourth podium position in as many events.
Hyundai struggled through the entire event with handling issues, apparently related to differential settings with Adrien Fourmaux their top finisher in fifth place - two minutes and 30s. behind Rovanpera. Tanak's car required an engine change on Saturday night.
The Wexford/Waterford crew of Eamonn Boland/MJ Morrissey (Ford Fiesta Rally2) were 22nd in the RC2 category.
Elsewhere. Wicklow's Max Hart (Hyundai Elantra N TCR) took a twelfth and seventh place finish in the two races of the TCR Europe Series with Italian outfit Target Competition at the opening round in Portimao.
Rally Islas Canarias (Round 4, World Rally Championship) Gran Canaria: 1. K. Rovanpera/J. Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 2h 54m 39.9s; 2. S. Ogier/V. Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)+53.5s; 3. E. Evans/S. Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)+1m 17.1s; 4. T Katsuta/A. Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris RTally1)+1m 43.9s; 5. A. Fourmaux/A. Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+2m 31.0s; 6. O. Tanak/M Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally)+3m. 11.4s; 7. T Neuville/M. Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+3m. 40.7s; 8. Y. Rossel/A. Dunand (Citroen C3 Rally2)+7m. 10.7s; 9. A. Cachon/B. Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+7m. 40.2s; N. Gryazin/K. Aleksandrov (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2)+7m. 58.4s.