Jan Kopecky will lead Rally Islas Canarias into the final day after Andreas Mikkelsen backed off to fall behind his rival on the last of Friday's stages.
Championship leader Mikkelsen had hung on in front despite a quick off-road moment on stage seven, but decided he would prefer to let factory Skoda driver Kopecky run first on the road on Saturday's deciding stages, so took the concluding Gran Canaria go-kart track stage steadily. The two Skodas – Mikkelsen in a Skoda UK-run example – will start Saturday just 1.2 seconds apart.
Setup changes helped Luis Monzon (Canarias Sport Club Peugeot) to cement his third place by pulling away from the chasing Hermann Gassner Jr (Red Bull Skoda), establishing a 21sec cushion.
Sepp Wiegand is now more secure in fifth place having both cured a misfire on his Skoda Auto Deutschland Fabia and benefited from sparring partner Alberto Hevia retiring on the road section before SS8.