Adrien Fourmaux has become the first casualty of the 2025 Safari Rally Kenya, as he failed to make the start of the second stage.
Fourmaux, who grabbed a podium 12 months ago for M-Sport, had been equal fifth overall after the opening Kasarani super special stage, but ran into trouble on the road section towards SS2 Mzabibu.
The Frenchman left regroup but was then unable to start his i20 N Rally1, leaving him unable to proceed.
Fourmaux told DirtFish: “That’s the worst thing that can happen in a rally car – it’s electronic.
“So… I did try to start the car and it did start once but stopped, and then after that there was like nothing. We used the battery of the nut gun to give a little bit of energy to at least start it when people push.
“We succeed to start the car, but when the battery is so low the car is asking quite a lot of energy to get it and we started to get some fire on the left, and the car stopped.”
Fourmaux should be able to restart on Friday, albeit with a 10-minute penalty. However on a rally as brutal as the Safari, that doesn’t necessarily rule him out of the game.
“For sure there is a long rally to try to get something, but our chances are really little anyway,” he added.
Tänak takes the lead
The brand-new Mzabibu test was held in the vineyard of a local farm, and Takamoto Katsuta went foraging for grapes with a hot moment into the vines towards the end of the stage.
But despite that, the Toyota driver was still second fastest – losing 1.1s to stage winner Ott Tänak who grabbed the overnight lead.
Three manufacturers are represented in the top three with Grégoire Munster an impressive third overnight, 2.6s off the lead.
Winner of the opening test, Elfyn Evans was only fifth fastest on the second to fall to the same position overall – lying 1.5s behind team-mate Kalle Rovanperä.
Just 4.5s covers the top five, with Josh McErlean another 4.3s back in sixth place – a single second clear of Sami Pajari.
But reigning world champion Thierry Neuville is cut adrift in eighth, already 19.7s off the lead after losing over 15s in the final split of SS2.
“I don’t know [what it is],” Neuville said. “The team is going to have a look tomorrow – it’s only 15 minutes [service] but it’s anything but a good start for us.
“However, better today than tomorrow.”
Kajetan Kajetanowicz leads WRC2 by 1.3s over Oliver Solberg – the two Toyota GR Yaris Rally2s complete the overall top-10.
