TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team drivers Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanperä head the field after a demanding first full day at Safari Rally Kenya.
Friday was the longest day of the rally and started with the longest stage, the new 31.4-kilometre Camp Moran test, which featured both rocky stretches and sections of soft ‘fesh-fesh’ sand. Evans and Rovanperä made it cleanly through to establish themselves in second and third overall respectively for the rest of the morning, with Rovanperä adding a stage win in SS5 Kengen Geothermal after conceding some seconds with a half-spin in the preceding test.
Their team-mates were less fortunate in the gruelling opening stage with Takamoto Katsuta finishing with tyre damage and Sami Pajari stopping to change a wheel, both dropping over two minutes.
The second pass of Camp Moran was even rougher but all four GR Yaris Rally1 cars made it through cleanly, and Evans and Rovanperä would capitalise to take over at the top of the leaderboard in SS9 as erstwhile leader Ott Tänak (Hyundai) was slowed by an issue.
With Rovanperä quickest again in the second pass of Geothermal and the afternoon’s final stage Kedong, where Evans finished with a rear-right tyre deflation, there are just 7.7 seconds between the two Toyota drivers overnight. Tänak is 47.7s further back in third.
Katsuta sustained more tyre damage in SS9 but was just 0.3s short of Rovanperä’s best time in SS10. He is fifth overall, one place ahead of Pajari who set some strong times to round out his first full day ever competing in Kenya.
The GR Yaris Rally2 car leads the WRC2 class on its Safari debut in the hands of Kajetan Kajetanowicz. Oliver Solberg was leading Kajetanowicz in a Toyota one-two until he got stuck in deep fesh-fesh in SS7 and had to stop for the day.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“In the end it has been a positive day for our team overall. It has been a long and challenging day but our drivers managed to keep a good, consistent speed. This first stage of the loop in particular was very difficult: you could push hard and take a lot of time but you could also lose the whole rally there. Our boys did a fantastic job and it has paid off at the end of the day. I’m quite satisfied so far but we have to remember that this is a long rally, tomorrow is another day and so many things can happen so quickly on this event. It’s not over until Sunday.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been a clean and strong day for us. Maybe we were not always the fastest, but I’m happy to be at the end of the day with no trouble. It was a tough day and this first stage of the loop was especially rough; the chance of damage was high with so many loose rocks. We definitely erred on the side of caution in places and that seems to have paid off, but there’s still a very long way to go. It can be a bit frustrating when you feel that you can go a bit faster and take more risk, but I just keep reminding myself where we are. Tomorrow might be slightly shorter but it’s still not going to be an easy day.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It has been a good day. The morning could have been better as I was losing some time in the more narrow and technical roads in the first two stages, but when we went to the faster stages it was much better and I had a really good feeling. The afternoon was much better overall. The conditions were really tough but we were able to take care of the car like we planned: it’s always important on this rally to manage your pace and stick to your plan. You can go quicker but you can run into trouble easily. Tomorrow the stages have a different style and the weather could play a big part too.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“The day started badly in the first long stage this morning with a lot of rocks, and we got a double puncture. It was very frustrating and we had no spares left for the rest of the morning, so we had to be very careful but we managed to get through it and back to service. This afternoon was even rougher and we were trying to avoid mistakes. Unfortunately we got another puncture but the pace when I pushed was quite OK and the feeling is nice in the car. There’s still two days to go, which is a long way in this rally, and everything is still possible.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“We knew that today would be challenging and it was the case already in the first stage this morning, where we stopped to change a tyre and again got a stone to the windscreen somehow. But we were able to regather ourselves with a couple of clean stages to end the morning, and then the afternoon was really good. The car is working really nicely with no issues and the times are also pretty solid, so I can be happy with that. I’m getting more used to the conditions and reading the changes in the road, and I’m starting to understand where I can push and where I need to be cautious, so it’s a good feeling to end the day.”
End of day two (Friday):
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2h0045m.4s
2 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +7.7s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +55.4s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m31.4s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +3m26.4s
6 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +4m19.1s
7 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +5m35.4s
8 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +5m53.8s
9 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +6m04.0s
10 Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuán (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6m34.1s
