Saliuk stars with sequence of top-six stage times

Oleksandr Saliuk underlined his potential as a frontrunner in this season’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge following his standout performance on day two of Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Inglés on Saturday.

Although the 33-year-old didn’t appear in the final classification following his retirement on Friday’s opening loop of stages, he was nevertheless able to impress with his speed behind the wheel of his Dream Team Ukraine M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000, scoring top-six times on all of Saturday’s tests.

“I was not happy because I was not in the results,” said Saliuk, who was fourth quickest overall on the rally’s final stage. “But I got some experience and my times were good.”

While Saliuk was able to complete all of Saturday’s stages, team-mate Oleksii Tamrazov was not so fortunate when he crashed into a retaining barrier on stage 12 after understeering off on a left-hand bend.

Although Tamrazov and co-driver Nicola Arena were uninjured, damage to the front-right corner of their Fiesta was too great for them to continue. They had been in seventh position overall at the time of their exit.