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Kalle Rovanperä is tackling a tightrope of speed and caution at Safari Rally Kenya. He led the event comfortably after Saturday morning but his Toyota team-mates fell afoul of the brutal conditions.
The Finn headed a trio of a Toyota GR Yaris cars by almost one minute coming into this penultimate leg, with his team-mates Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta starting the day in podium position.
That dynamic had flipped by the time crews returned for lunchtime service in Naivasha after Evans punctured in Soysambu and Sleeping Warrior and Katsuta faced similar troubles in the latter. The pair slipped to fifth and third respectively, elevating Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville to second overall.
Unfazed out front and with his lead stretched to 1m 27.9s over Neuville, Rovanperä conceded that striking a safe balance between speed and caution was no easy task.
“It’s not easy with the big gap,” he revealed. “You don’t want to be too flow, but you also don’t want to take too many risks.”
Neuville was on a comeback drive after facing tyre troubles himself on Friday, and a heavy bump towards the end of the rain-dotted Sleeping Warrior was the Belgian’s only real complaint.
The same couldn’t be said for his i20 N colleagues Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi, who both restarted after retiring on Friday. Tänak pull over in SS8 to secure a loose bonnet pin and intercom failure meant he relied on hand signals from co-driver Martin Järveoja in the following test. Lappi, meanwhile, sustained two damaged tyres.
A frustrated Katsuta completed the podium 55.0s behind Neuville while M-Sport Ford youngster Adrien Fourmaux climbed to fourth in his Puma, 27.7s behind. Grégoire Munster retired his similar car with broken rear suspension after SS8.
Sixth-placed Gus Greensmith continued his stronghold on the WRC2 category ahead of his Toksport WRT Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 rival Oliver Solberg, while Jourdan Serderidis (Ford Puma Rally1) , Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Škoda Fabia RS ) and Nicolas Ciamin (Hyundai i20 N) rounded out the top 10.
Safari Rally KenyaWRC
SEASON 2024FIARallies1FIAWorld Rally ChampionshipRalliesWRCSEASON 2024Safari Rally Kenya01Saturday, March 30, 2024 – 10:43amSaturday, March 30, 2024 – 10:43am
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Kalle Rovanperä dominated Friday’s opening leg of Safari Rally Kenya to build a 56.9-second lead on a dream day for his Toyota Gazoo Racing team.
The Finn, winner of the FIA World Rally Championship for two years running, was simply untouchable as he and co-driver Jonne Halttunen romped to fastest times on all six of Friday’s rugged gravel speed tests around Lake Naivasha.
His team-mates Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta made it a GR Yaris 1-2-3, the Japanese marque capitalising on what unravelled into a disastrous afternoon for rival team Hyundai Motorsport after its drivers Esapekka Lappi and Ott Tänak bowed into retirement.
Lappi had been Rovanperä’s nearest challenger at the day’s midpoint, but a transmission failure sidelined his i20 N car in the first stage after service. That elevated Tänak to second until his similar machine stopped in the following Geothermal test with broken steering after hitting a rock.
Evans and Katsuta were on hand to pick up the pieces and complete Toyota’s podium lockout. They were split by just 3.9s after Evans moved ahead in the final stage of the day.
“I have to be happy with that,” Rovanperä smiled. “For sure, on the last one the conditions were quite rough, and I think from every car [the ruts] get a bit deeper in places. I didn’t take any risks and I was going around all the stones to try and keep the car in one piece. I would have loved to go even faster, but at this point this is okay!”
Championship leader Thierry Neuville became Hyundai’s only hope, although the Belgian encountered troubles himself with tyre damage in SS3. The flailing rubber punched a hole in his Hyundai’s bodywork, forcing the Belgian and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe to don goggles and dust masks for the final stage of the morning.
A more positive afternoon saw Neuville edge closer to podium position. Beaten only by Rovanperä in Kedong 2, he trails Katsuta by a mere 6.5s heading into Saturday’s penultimate leg.
M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux had to contend with his Puma surfing on its sump guard in some of the rougher sections, but he coped well to hold fifth after a relatively clean day. The Frenchman ended almost two minutes back from the lead with team-mate Grégoire Munster – contesting his first Safari in Rally1 machinery – a similar distance behind.
With Oliver Solberg hampered by tyre troubles on his Toksport-entered Škoda Fabia RS, his team-mate Gus Greensmith built a commanding lead in WRC2 and also placed seventh overnight. Jourdan Serderidis, Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Solberg completed the top 10.
Saturday is the longest day of the rally and features six stages totalling 160.96km. Up first is Soysambu, which starts at 08:01 (local).
Safari Rally KenyaWRC
SEASON 2024SportRallies1SportWorld Rally ChampionshipRalliesWRCSEASON 2024Safari Rally Kenya01Friday, March 29, 2024 – 8:21pmFriday, March 29, 2024 – 8:21pm
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