Sebastien Ogier pipped his Toyota teammate Oliver Solberg to the post to win his first rally of the season at the Rally Islas Canarias on Sunday.
On the island of Gran Canaria, it took a crash on the penultimate stage to finally put paid to Solberg's charge, after the Swede had steadily been closing the gap on Ogier –- the leader since Friday.
"It is not the way we wanted to see it go," Ogier said.
"Oliver was doing a great job up until that point. Rallying is tough. Being fast is important but being at the end even more. I never panicked when I saw him pushing and I kept my rhythm."
After a third-place finish at Monte Carlo and an 11th in Kenya, the 42-year-old Frenchman, a nine-time world champion and the defending titleholder, has finally opened his account this season in this fifth round.
The French veteran is once again on a reduced schedule and has already skipped the rounds in Sweden and Croatia.
With Solberg out of the running, Ogier finished well ahead of his other Toyota teammates, Welshman Elfyn Evans, second at 19.9sec, and the Finn Sami Pajari.
Evans now takes the lead in the overall standings, two points ahead of Takamoto Katsuta, who finished fourth.