San Francisco Frontiers - Rovanpera takes control of Rally Islas Canarias

The Finn, who won the title in 2022 and 2023, headed a quintet of Toyotas, leading his semi-retired team-mate Sebastien Ogier by 26.8 seconds.

Championship leader Elfyn Evans is almost 10 seconds further back in third.

Rovanpera has made a slow start to the season, with a best of fourth in Monte Carlo, and lies 57 points behind Welshman Evans in the standings.

But the 24-year-old roared around the winding asphalt roads in the Gran Canaria mountains as the locals watched the first ever WRC rally there.

"It feels quite good," said Rovanpera.

"It's surprisingly nice to have this kind of tarmac rally - we haven't had it in a long time.

"Now hopefully we know for tomorrow what to do with the car. We tested some small things here, so it should be quite okay."

His compatriot Sami Pajari and Japan's Takamoto Katsuta complete the Toyota top five.

Defending champion Thierry Neuville and his Hyundai teammates Ott Tanak and Adrien Fourmaux struggled to get the best out of their cars, with the tyres a particular problem.

"I don't know what to say," said Neuville who is sixth, over 1min 13sec behind Rovanpera.

"Obviously, days like this are really hard to swallow. But in the end, they are not the end of the world.

"I'm not sure we learned anything today. We know we have two more days to go, and we need to keep positive and continue working."

The event continues on Saturday with seven special stages and concludes at midday on Sunday.

G.Collins--SFF