Sébastien Ogier maintains a 22.8-second lead over Kalle Rovanperä as they head into Saturday’s leg of the Safari Rally Kenya. The second day of the rally saw Thierry Neuville, a contender for the World Rally Championship title, forced to retire.
Ogier, who trailed Ott Tänak by a mere 0.1 seconds at the start of Friday, quickly took the lead during the second stage and held onto it throughout the day. Although a hybrid issue affected his performance during the first pass of Kedong, allowing Rovanperä to close the gap to just 2.5 seconds, Ogier’s exceptional driving skills and strategic tire choice (opting for one spare while his rivals took two) helped him extend his lead to over 20 seconds, winning all the stages in the afternoon.
Despite the setback in the morning, Ogier remained positive about his performance, jokingly mentioning a minor encounter with a tree during a fesh-fesh section. Rovanperä, on the other hand, was content with his second-place position as it placed him ahead of his title rivals.
Toyota currently dominates the top three positions, with Elfyn Evans in the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 securing the third spot, 43.5 seconds behind the leader. Evans had a close battle with Neuville from Hyundai until Neuville was forced to withdraw due to a loosened bolt on his front-left top mount, caused by a compression on the penultimate stage.
Esapekka Lappi is performing admirably in fourth place, marking his first-ever Safari Rally Kenya appearance, while fending off Takamoto Katsuta in another Toyota. Katsuta encountered several issues, including a collision with a zebra during SS5, which led to pre-stage repairs for the second time that day due to a broken steering arm in the morning. He also endured a cracked windshield and a front-right puncture on the final stage.
Dani Sordo currently sits in seventh place, but experienced a peculiar moment when he was caught in his own dust and stopped for approximately 10 seconds in a hairpin turn. Ott Tänak and Pierre-Louis Loubet, both driving M-Sport Fords, trail behind Sordo due to punctures that required them to stop and change their wheels on Friday.
Tänak holds the eighth position, over a minute ahead of his teammate Loubet, but struggled with his time on the final stage, falling more than 20 seconds behind the pace. Although there were no reported issues, Tänak expressed discomfort with pushing the limits and felt cautious about going faster.
Meanwhile, M-Sport has a stronger presence in the Rally2 class, with Grégoire Munster leading Kajetan Kajetanowicz in WRC2, while Martin Prokop follows in third place. Oliver Solberg, who had been the fastest Rally2 car, unfortunately retired his Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo just a few miles before the end of the day due to front-right damage that ultimately forced him to stop and withdraw from the rally.
