The Spanish tarmac rally has been added to the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge calendar in place of Rally Principe de Asturias, which was due to take place later in the year.

Rally Islas Canarias will run from April 30-May 1 in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, and slots in as round four of the IRC.

Guy told guywilks.com: “I’m pleased Škoda UK Motorsport has acted so quickly and made plans to contest the event.

"I’ve never done the rally but the challenge of contesting a new event is always exciting.

"We’re going there to try and score the maximum number of points we can.

"We expect the leading IRC drivers to be there and also some very fast locals, so I’m sure the competition will be very tough.”

Guy is currently second in the IRC driver's standings after two second place finishes in Brazil and Argentina.

Skoda factory driver Juho Hanninen crossed the finish ramp in Carlos Paz 51 seconds ahead of the Skoda UK team with Jan Kopecky (+2mins 20.1secs) in third.

Kris Meeke held third for Peugeot UK overnight but retired on the road section to the final stage with suspension failure.

Skoda's 1-2-3 finish - on one of the world's toughest rallies - is its first in international competition. It is also the first time one manufacturer has taken all the three podium positions on Rally Argentina since Lancia in 1989.

Guy trailed Hanninen by 32.2 seconds going into Sunday's final leg and had planned to attack on the opening two stages.

But a brake problem half way through the opening La Cumbre – Agua De Oro test cost him time and he completed the stage 2.1 seconds behind Hänninen.

The longest (22.4kms) and highest (1471 metres) stage of the rally followed, but Ascochinga-La Cumbre was strewn with rocks and Guy sensibly played it safe and decided to continue to the finish at a fast pace, but without taking any risks.

Having also taken second in Brazil two weeks ago, Guy is delighted to have scored 16 points on the IRC's South American double-header.

He said: “We have had two fantastic rallies in South America and the Škoda UK Motorsport team has done a magnificent job.  
 
“Juho has driven very well in Argentina, and I would like to congratulate him and everyone at Škoda Motorsport for a superb result.

"Juho and I both scored 16 points each in Brazil and Argentina, so I can’t be disappointed by finishing second in both, even though we would have seriously loved to have won one of the events.
 
“We had a push on the opening stage this morning, but a rock pushed the piston in a brake caliper back and for the last four or five kilometres we had brake knock off and a long pedal.
 
"It cleared itself at the end of the stage, but it cost us a handful of seconds, and instead of taking time off Juho as we’d hoped, we dropped two seconds.
 
“We maintained a controlled fast and safe pace after that to make sure we got the Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000 to the finish.

"The car has run faultlessly again, and I’m looking forward to fine tuning the set-up and challenging for victory on our next event.”
 
Rally Argentina results
1. Juho Hänninen/ Mikko Markkula (Škoda Fabia S2000)…2:30.38.1
2. Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Škoda Fabia S2000)…+51.0
3. Jan Kopecký/Petr Starý (Škoda Fabia S2000)…+2.20.1
4. Gabriel Pozzo/Luis Stillo (Subaru Impreza)…+5.03.9
5. Federico Villagra/Jorge Companc (Ford Fiesta S2000)…+5.14.2 
6. Bruno Magalhăes/Carlos Magalhăes (Peugeot 207 S2000)…+6.11.0

IRC drivers points (after round 3)
1 Juho Hänninen…24pts
2 Guy Wilks…19pts
3 Jan Kopecký…15pts
4 Mikko Hirvonen…10pts
= Kris Meeke…10pts
6 Bruno Magalhăes…9pts
 
IRC manufacturers (after round 3)
1 Škoda…46pts
2 Peugeot…24pts
3 M-Sport…14pts

They set one fastest, four second quickest and three third fastest stage times to trail Skoda factory driver Juho Hanninen by 32.2 seconds overnight. Kris Meeke is third for Peugeot UK, 18.8 seconds behind Guy.

Guy told guywilks.com: “The pace has been incredibly quick today, but we haven’t taken any risks. The surface this morning was inconsistent and it was easy to make a mistake, so we kept the Fabia in the middle of the road.
 
“The opening stage this morning didn’t flow as well as we’d have liked and Juho took some time off everyone in there. We then found a pace which we were quite happy with and things went well.
 
“The repeat stages in the afternoon were a lot rougher, but we got through them without a problem and moved into second position.

"We’re 32 seconds behind Juho, but tomorrow is a very difficult day.  The stages are quite rough and high and the weather conditions could play a big part, particularly on the two early morning stages. 
 
“We plan to keep the pressure on tomorrow and see what happens.”
 
Crews leave Villa Carlos Paz at 07.00 local time on Sunday and head north to the mountain roads above the town of Cosquin.

The final day’s opening two stages, La Cumbre – Agua De Oro (9.3 miles / 15kms) and Ascochinga-La Cumbre (14 miles / 22.4kms), rise to 1471 metres above sea level, bringing the possibility of dense low early morning cloud. 

There are a total of six gravel stages - four in the morning, two repeated in the afternoon – totalling 63.4 miles (102kms), before the rally ends with another run over the Villa Carlos Paz super-special at 16.23.
 
Rally Argentina leaderboard (after SS8)
1. Juho Hänninen/ Mikko Markkula (Škoda Fabia S2000)…1:16.55.0
2. Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Škoda Fabia S2000)…+32.2
3. Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Peugeot 207 S2000)…+51.0
4. Jan Kopecký/Petr Starý (Škoda Fabia S2000)…+1.26.2 
5. Federico Villagra/Jorge Companc (Ford Fiesta S2000)…+2.57.7 
6. Gabriel Pozzo/Luis Stillo (Subaru Impreza)…+23.11.1

They return to Carlos Paz for the midday service 13.7 seconds behind rally leader Juho Hanninen in the factory Skoda. Kris Meeke is second for Peugeot UK,  just 0.2 seconds in front of Guy.

Guy and Phil claimed their first stage win of the rally on SS4 - the 21.5km Santa Rosa-San Agustin test. And they have registered top three times on all five stages run so far.

Guy said: "We have some minor changes to make on the car but the first stages were good."

Rally Argentina leaderboard (after SS5)

1 Hanninen (Skoda) 43:00.9
2 Meeke (Peugeot) +13.5
3 Wilks (Skoda) +13.7
4 Kopecky (Skoda) +57.0
5 Villagra (Ford) +1.37.1
6 Pozzo (Subaru) +1.39.8
7 AL-Attiyah (Skoda) +2.05.0
8 Magalhaes (Peugeot) +2.08.0
 

More news later...

 

Kris Meeke (Peugeot UK) won the rain-hit 4km stage in 2mins 32.8 secs - 1.4 seconds ahead of Portugal’s Bruno Magalhaes (Peugeot).

Guy was third in the Skoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000 in 2mins 35 secs.

He told guywilks.com: “It was very slippery in places. We enjoyed it but we knew we could have lost a lot of time to anybody here.”

Rally Argentina leaderboard after SS1

1 Meeke (Peugeot) 2mins 32.8 secs
2 Magalhaes (Peugeot) +1.4
3 Wilks (Skoda) +2.2
4 Kopecky (Skoda) + 2.9
= Hanninen (Skoda) + 2.9
6 Villagra (Fiesta)+ 7.8
7 Baldoni (Evo X) + 8.4
8 Al-Attiyah (Skoda) + 9.2