WRC
Tänak takes charge with early Safari attack
Ott Tänak made a blistering start to Safari Rally Kenya on Friday morning, building a commanding 24.4sec lead after dominating the opening loop in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1.
The Estonian had edged ahead by 2.4sec after Thursday’s short curtain-raisers, but turned up the heat on the longer, more traditional Kenyan gravel tests that followed - rattling off a hat-trick of fastest times to leave his rivals in the dust.
His closest pursuer was championship leader Elfyn Evans, who managed to cling on in second despite Tänak’s onslaught. The Welshman’s Toyota GAZOO Racing team-mate Kalle Rovanperä, a two-time Safari winner, was third overall - already 47.1sec adrift following a costly spin on SS4.
Despite consistent top-three stage times, Tänak’s team-mate Thierry Neuville endured a nightmare morning and trailed by more than 1min 40sec in fourth at the mid-leg break.
Neuville’s troubles began before the day’s first stage when a delayed departure from service - caused by a gearbox change - earned him a one-minute penalty. Things got worse on SS5 with a jump start (+10sec) and a debeaded tyre that dropped him even further off the pace.
Championship leader Evans held second
© WRC
“It’s been a long loop with quite many stages done,” Tänak said. “Altogether, it’s been a smooth morning, actually. Everything has been working fine; we just lost a bit of the front bumper in a compression on the first stage. After this, the last two ones were a bit tricky on the high-speed [sections], but car-wise all was good.
“It’s been incredibly challenging, especially the first two. We had some very surprising slippy and muddy places which I was not expecting, and also quite rough with a lot of loose stones. It’s a rally where you can’t really do any strategies. We just need to take it stage by stage and keep it clean.”
Neuville: P4 despite fraught morning
© WRC
With several frontrunners encountering issues, M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean took full advantage to slot into fifth overall in his Puma Rally1, just 8.8sec behind Neuville at service.
Team-mate Grégoire Munster was less fortunate. A broken rear suspension arm, transmission issues and tyre damage saw the Luxembourger tumble below the top 10.
There was also drama for Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari, both of whom dropped time with tyre damage. They completed the morning loop in seventh and 11th respectively.
Oliver Solberg led WRC2 and held sixth in the overall standings, with rivals Kajetan Kajetanowicz, Gus Greensmith and Jan Solans completing the outright top 10 behind Katsuta.
