Oliver Solberg leads Safari Rally Kenya by 30 seconds after just one stage, with almost four minutes separating the Rally1 field.
Sudden rainfall battered the opening Camp Moran test of the 2026 Safari Rally, making it a true test of survival and placing those at the front of the running order at a clear advantage.
Elfyn Evans was the first car onto the stage, but it was Toyota team-mate Solberg who made haste – defeating Evans, who was angered by not being able to see anything, by exactly half a minute.
Everybody else was over a minute adrift of Solberg’s GR Yaris as they battled through the monsoon conditions.
Sébastien Ogier was third fastest despite starting sixth on the road, 1m09.3s off the lead, with Takamoto Katsuta completing the top four, 6.4s behind Ogier, despite having no intercom for the entire stage.
An irate Katsuta said: “Before the start we just lost the connection with Aaron [Johnston, co-driver]. Whole way through without pacenotes, f***ing hell! This is stupid, I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
Despite the dramatic start to the rally, Toyota continued to dominate with Safari completing an early top-five lockout for the team – 2m10.2s off the lead.
Hyundai’s lead driver Thierry Neuville is just 3.1s adrift however, and seemingly enjoyed the challenge.
“We needed a boat in there!” he said. “I took it carefully. You don’t know where it’s slippery, what’s on the braking, and nothing is working. Everything is so cold so super difficult.
“The rally is very long, anything can happen. We lost two minutes which wasn’t great, but in these conditions the road is very long.”
Team-mate Adrien Fourmaux is another 4.1s behind Neuville, with M-Sport’s Jon Armstrong 4.8s behind Fourmaux in eighth place.
Josh McErlean was over a minute slower than Armstrong and 3m57.1s off the lead, defeated by some of the leading Rally2 cars on SS1, with a downbeat Esapekka Lappi settling into ninth, 2m40.8s off the lead.
