World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans has retired from the Safari Rally after damaging the right-rear of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 during an action-packed Saturday morning.
Evans pulled over around five kilometers into the loop-ending Sleeping Warrior stage with the car dragging the right-rear wheel, registering his first WRC retirement since the Acropolis Rally two years ago.
The Welshman was 22 seconds off the lead going into SS12, but will now have the afternoon off to plan an attack through tomorrow’s bonus point-paying Super Sunday.
Evans wasn’t the only driver to suffer, with rally leader Oliver Solberg running out of washer fluid and being forced to slow his pace on SS13 as he attempted to follow the road through a screen filled with mud. The Swede dropped more than a minute to fastest man Sébastien Ogier.
The Frenchman had started the day just a second behind Solberg, but immediately slipped back to fifth place with a puncture on the opener. Ogier battled back with consecutive stage wins and arrives at lunchtime service with a 42-second gap to Solberg.
The leader’s pace had been further stymied by a double puncture on the previous test – meaning he had no spare Hankook if he suffered any further tire issues in Sleeping Warrior.
A frustrated Solberg said: “Not good. Ogier took a minute. What can I do? I have no spare tires left and I can’t see anything. I tried to be smart and Ogier is pushing I guess to take advantage. This didn’t help.”
The final comment was added with a finger pointing towards the muddied screen.
Ogier admitted the morning and had been about survival: “I have no idea about the time, but just to get through is good,” he said.
Takamoto Katsuta moved up to third place after Sami Pajari suffered two right-side punctures – the Finn described the rear letting go as “an explosion in a straight line.”
Stopping to change the wheel ensured Pajari would drop to seventh, allowing all three Hyundais to move up the leaderboard. Coming out of SS12, Thierry Neuville, Adrien Fourmaux and Esapekka Lappi were fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
Neuville and Fourmaux were both slowed by significant overheating issues and stopped on the road section to put more water into their i20s on the road back to service in Naivasha.
Lappi also suffered a water-related issue as his screen washer bottle ran dry.
“We were so busy to fix the other problems,” Lappi said, “we didn’t have time to fill the washer liquid and we ran out of water on the first straight.”
M-Sport Ford driver Jon Armstrong bounced back from a tough Friday with an outstanding second fastest time through SS12. The British squad’s joy was countered by an engine issue aboard Josh McErlean’s Puma, which ingested water. After the motor went silent at the stop line, the Irishman got it fired up to make it back to service.
The stage was cancelled after Solberg, meaning Robert Virves remains out front in the WRC2 standings by 17.2s over Gus Greensmith.
