Toyota driver Oliver Solberg leads Sébastien Ogier by just a single second after a thrilling first full day of Safari Rally Kenya competition.
Monte Carlo winner Solberg suffered a puncture on the re-run Geothermal stage, cutting a half-minute lead to just a single second over Ogier. He then saw a further three tenths slip in the Frenchman’s direction on Lolida 2, only for Solberg to take the same time back on the day’s final action.
“I tried my best,” said Solberg. “I’m up to speed now, but it was really, really slippery in that last stage. This wasn’t easy.”
Talking about the intensity of the battle at the front, he added: “I’ve had a fight with him [Ogier] before. It’s 1-0… but he’s had an incredible day, really, really impressive. I’ve been trying to be smart and do my thing, but clearly I was a bit too careful and [had] bad luck with the puncture. There’s still so long to go, I hope to be leading or fighting for the lead tomorrow.”
Happy to be right back at the sharp end and just one second off the lead, Ogier admitted that second might come in handy on Saturday.
“It’s been a good day. I’m happy with that for sure, actually it’s better to don’t be in the lead tonight. We know on a Saturday it always starts raining in the afternoon and, most of the time, the rear guys are struggling.
“Tomorrow is the big day this week, it’s going to be a massive challenge.”
Ogier is happy to be second overnight
Championship leader Elfyn Evans goes into Saturday 20 seconds off the lead. The Welshman offered a similar prediction, saying: “Tomorrow, all hell will break loose if the past years are anything to go by. You’re never ready for that.”
The Welshman suffered early brake issues with his Yaris and never quite found the car’s sweet spot on Friday.
Sami Pajari was a man who struggled to move his Toyota out of the sweet spot. Fastest on four of the day’s seven stages (and second quickest on two more), only Ogier drove quicker than him through Friday.
The fourth-placed Finn offered: “Today I was enjoying quite a lot. Obviously, it was rough in some stages, but I tried to play it clever where I saw the risk was highest. It’s still a really long way to go, but today was really positive.
“I saw some of them watching my first pass onboard at lunchtime, so I think that’s the sign…”
Toyota had held the top five positions until Friday’s penultimate stage when Hyundai men Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux both eased their way past Takamoto Katsuta.
Katsuta’s day was spoiled by a double front puncture on the afternoon’s opener. With no spare tires available, he was forced to take a more conservative approach to the afternoon.
Ahead of him, just 1.2s split the two i20s. Neuville is ahead, despite a water pressure problem on the penultimate stage. That issue was believed to be caused by a broken fan. After working on the car between stages nine and 10, the Belgian made it through the final test – but wasn’t hanging around at the finish after talking of more issues.
Fourmaux’s day was strong as he placed his car in the top-three times on three stages.
“I’m quite happy,” smiled the Frenchman. “We’re out of trouble and this is positive. Today was a dry day… and it was a lot of fun.”
Katsuta is the filling in a Hyundai sandwich, just six seconds behind Fourmaux and a minute up on Esapekka Lappi. WRC2 leader Robert Virves is ninth overall, 14.5s ahead of defending Safari category winner Gus Greensmith.
Their move into the top-10 was helped by a troubled day for both M-Sport Ford Pumas. Josh McErlean retired with a cracked gearbox casing on SS8, while Jon Armstrong was forced to stop and repair damage to his Puma on the next stage. Armstrong avoided retirement, but dropped 24 minutes fixing what was believed to be impact damage to the transmission.
Rain is forecast for Saturday which moves north towards Nakuru, with two loops of three stages – including the fearsome Sleeping Warrior test – on the itinerary.
