Thierry Neuville has launched himself into podium contention as Ott Tänak’s Safari Rally Kenya lead ballooned to over 40 seconds and Adrien Fourmaux retired.
The 19.5-mile Camp Moran stage is both the longest and by far the most demanding test of Friday’s loop, and the second pass proved no different.
Fourmaux – who had already retired on Thursday on the road section due to a master relay failure – was the stage’s big casualty, as he picked up a front-right puncture.
Electing not to stop and change it, the stress the car was under ended up ripping the suspension apart and the Hyundai driver was forced to stop close to the end of the stage.
It was a stark contrast to what his team-mates managed, as Neuville and Tänak were comfortably the quickest two cars on the timesheets.
Neuville beat Tänak by a massive 22.4s and has thus vaulted himself into contention for the podium – now just 23.7s behind Kalle Rovanperä.
Tänak’s rally lead meanwhile has grown to 43.5s, as Elfyn Evans dropped 41.5s to the stage winner on SS7.
Josh McErlean was the other big loser in the Rally1 field, as he lost fifth position to Takamoto Katsuta due to a squashed exhaust which both slowed him down and prompted the Irishman to stop in risk of fire.
Sami Pajari is now just 4.8s behind McErlean overall.
WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg was also in trouble, getting stuck in a deep section of fech-fech by simply attempting to drive through it.
Seemingly a victim of being the first WRC2 car on the road, those behind Solberg were ushered through the undergrowth by spectators and have been able to proceed.
Kajetan Kajetanowicz now leads the category in his Toyota, but by just 12.7s over Gus Greensmith’s Škoda.
