TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s Elfyn Evans survived treacherous conditions on Saturday at Safari Rally Kenya to increase his advantage ahead of the final day.
As usual, Saturday’s action was centred on a trio of classic Safari stages to the north of Naivasha, adjacent to Lake Elmenteita. As well as posing a high risk of tyre and car damage from large rocks, these stages would be extremely muddy and slippery following overnight rain.
Leading by 7.7 seconds at the start of the day from team-mate Kalle Rovanperä, championship leader Evans mastered the conditions well as he won the opening two stages of the morning. He ended the morning with his lead increased to 1 minute 32.5s over Rovanperä, who dropped time following tyre damage. Takamoto Katsuta meanwhile continued his fight back from time lost to punctures on Friday, gaining fourth overall on the day’s first stage and winning SS13.
Fresh rain made conditions even more difficult for the afternoon, particularly in the opening Sleeping Warrior test, where Evans was among those to spin but remained in the lead. Katsuta was fastest despite a moment in the same place as his team-mate and closed to within 16s of the podium places. Rovanperä remained second but sustained left-rear suspension damage, making running repairs on the road section that would allow him to drive the following stages at reduced speed.
Conditions remained extremely slippery through those final two tests but Evans made it through with his lead standing at just under two minutes over second-placed Ott Tänak (Hyundai).
Katsuta’s charge towards the podium was interrupted by more tyre-related delays over the last two stages, but he remains fourth overall, 33.2s from third-placed Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). Rovanperä is just under a minute further back in fifth, and Sami Pajari is a similar gap behind in sixth after avoiding much of the trouble as he builds experience on his Safari debut.
The GR Yaris Rally2 car remains in the hunt for WRC2 honours on its first outing in Kenya, with Jan Solans ending the day second in class, just 5.8s from the leader.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“It has been an incredible day with so much changing all the time. I think it’s the first time in recent years on the Safari that the weather has been quite so difficult. Also, in the area of today’s stages, the stones are really sharp and even though the car is strong, they can easily damage the tyres and things on the car. Elfyn has been driving very well to get through without any major issues, but we are all aware that this rally is not over until you reach the finish. Takamoto has been unlucky with some punctures and Kalle broke something in the suspension, but he did very well to bring the car back. Sami has also been doing a good job in such difficult conditions on his first time here.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been remarkably difficult out there today. This has definitely been a proper Safari. Even this morning the conditions were really quite tricky after a lot of rain overnight. Then the rain came again immediately as we started the afternoon loop. The conditions were horribly inconsistent, and I was trying to treat everything with care but it’s easy to drop a lot of time. I couldn’t see much at all at the end with so much mud, but I’m happy we managed to get through it. Even with this gap, nothing is guaranteed on this rally. Tomorrow will be demanding and rough and anything can still happen, so we need to stay focused.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“Today was not an easy day for us. It started well this morning but then we had some bad luck with some punctures, and the afternoon was even worse; in Sleeping Warrior we hit a big loose stone in a muddy section and it broke something in the suspension. We tried to make a small fix before each stage, and although it didn’t last we could at least get through the stages and get back to service. It’s still a long day ahead tomorrow with some tricky stages and a lot of points available, and we’ll do the best we can.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It has been a really frustrating day. The last two days have been tough for me with sickness, but the team has been supporting me well and I’ve been able to keep driving. The pace was there and I was enjoying the driving and doing some good times. It was really disappointing to lose time with the punctures, but there are still five more stages to go. Just over 30 seconds to the podium is not so much on a rally like this, so we will keep pushing and see what happens.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Today was extremely tricky with a lot of learning. Already this morning we faced some very different challenges to yesterday, with a lot of wet and muddy places and it was tricky for me to predict the grip, or to know exactly what speed you can carry and what line to take. This afternoon the conditions were even tougher, but the pace was better which was nice to see. I could see some improvement in my driving even in the extreme conditions, and with every kilometre the feeling is getting better.”
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 3h38m39.3s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m57.4s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +4m33.4s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +5m06.6s
5 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +6m06.0s
6 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +7m00.4s
7 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +11m02.0s
8 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +12m08.3s
9 Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuán (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +12m14.1s
10 Jourdan Serderidis/Frédéric Miclotte (Ford Puma Rally1) +24m39.1s
(Results as of 18:30 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
