Kalle Rovanperä continues his solo lead in the Kenya Rally. At the end of Saturday’s first loop, the Toyota Finn is still in the lead, 1’27 ahead of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). This is one of the rare stable data from this event which subjects the other drivers to great uncertainty on these tracks where stones lie in wait.
After the retirements of Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi on Friday, Elfyn Evans suffered a puncture on the first special of the day (SS8). The Briton from Toyota lost 2 minutes in the process: from second in the general classification, he found himself fifth at midday. Same misfortune for Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), who suffered a puncture during SS10, the Sleeping Warrior 1. The Japanese, who had gone second, lost a place.
Having passed between the drops, Neuville took advantage of the opportunity to sneak into second place, after achieving the scratch on SS9. Adrien Fourmaux also managed to escape the unexpected: at the wheel of his Ford, the Frenchman from M-Sport climbed to 4th place in the general classification. Although he is 2’50 behind leader Rovanperä, he is only 27 seconds behind Katsuta, who provisionally occupies third place on the podium.
The conditions are tricky and Fourmaux demonstrated this at the finish of SS10. “I was slow in this stage, I didn’t have confidence,” said the Frenchman, supported by Alexandre Coria in his Ford Puma. There are stones everywhere, the grip is very changeable. I just wanted to pass it, which we did. » The second loop of the day will begin with SS12 scheduled for 12:34 p.m.
