McErlean and Treacy struggle with oversteer on opening day at Rally Islas Canarias

McErlean said it was a "crazy experience just to drive these roads".

The Irish crew of Kilrea's Josh McErlean and Killeagh's Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) hold 12th place in Rally Islas Canarias, round four of the World Rally Championship. Pic: Red Bull Content Pool.

Struggling with understeer, the Irish crew of Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy finished outside the top ten on the opening day of Rally Islas Canarias, round four of the World Rally Championship. The Kilrea/Killeagh pairing are 12th overall. The Toyota GR outfit have an impressive lock-out of the top five places with Finland's Kalle Rovanpera finding form and pace to lead team mate Sebastien Ogier by 26.8s with championship leader Elfyn Evans a further 9.6s behind in third after the day's six stages.

Rovanpera imposed his authority from the very start and with three stage wins on the morning loop he arrived at the Las Palmas service park with a lead of 17.8s from Ogier, who was on his first WR event since his Monte Carlo victory with Evans a further 2.4s behind in third. Rally leader Rovanpera admitted he couldn't get the tyres to work on the third stage where his Toyota Yaris had some understeer, Ogier's tyres had too much pressure on the opening stage but he moved ahead of Evans on the next stage.