Elfyn Evans suffered a scare through a water-splash as his car briefly cut out on Saturday morning’s first stage of Safari Rally Kenya, costing him third place to Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi.
Water-splashes became an issue across the board for crews on the Saturday of Rally Italy Sardinia earlier this month and appeared to haunt Evans again on SS8 Soysambu.
The Welshman approached the deep water-crossing at a sensible speed but on the other side the car stuttered to a halt with steam pouring from the engine. However it proved minor enough that he was able to get going soon after – but not after losing over 40 seconds.
It means that Toyota’s stranglehold of the podium has been broken with Hyundai’s Lappi now 31.2s up the road, and team-mate Takamoto Katsuta – who stalled at the start of the stage – is just two seconds behind too.
“I was very slow and then tried to lift the front but, yeah… I don’t know,” Evans said.
Saturday, the longest leg of the rally, has also been touted as the most difficult – and the opening Soysambu test certainly proved a challenge for the drivers.
Rally leader Sébastien Ogier has risen above anything the 70th edition of the Safari Rally has been able to throw at him, and Saturday morning’s opener was no different.
Ogier beat second-placed Kalle Rovanperä by 7.6s – who beat the rest of the field by a staggering 19.2s – to extend his rally lead to over half a minute at 30.4s.
However he did arrive at the stage-end with a tire starting to work its way off the rim.
“On the last 4km we had to go with a puncture, but not too bad,” said Ogier. “Now we need to change it.”
“I lost a bit of time in some easy places,” Rovanperä added. “I tried to be smooth with the car which doesn’t work here.”
Thierry Neuville returned to action following his suspension-related retirement on Friday afternoon, running as the first car on the road.
The Hyundai driver posted the seventh fastest time, quicker than Evans, Pierre-Louis Loubet and Jourdan Serderidis in the Rally1 class.
“I don’t know if it’s the car or the road, but something is wrong that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s very hard to see the road actually – I struggle a lot.”
Loubet shared Neuville’s concerns about the road.
“I was a bit lost in this condition,” the M-Sport driver said. “I was not seeing the road it was very strange, so very difficult.”
