Based on the island of Gran Canaria in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa, the event was making its debut in the FIA World Rally Championship. As the first pure asphalt round of the season, it was also the first rally with the new hard-compound Hankook asphalt tyre.
The smooth and winding stages required ultimate confidence and performance and the GR YARIS Rally1 proved up to the task, never being headed in the stage times across the 18 stages. Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen won 15 stages – and all but one of the full-length tests in the mountains. Putting a challenging start to the season behind him, Rovanperä led overall from start to finish to return to the top step of the podium for the first time since Rally Chile last October.
He sealed the win by 53.5 seconds after also setting the best time in the rally-ending Power Stage and topping the Super Sunday classification to score a maximum of 35 points.
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