Esapekka Lappi has retired from third place on Safari Rally Kenya with a suspected propshaft failure aboard his Hyundai.
On his first visit to Africa, Lappi had risen to a superb third overall in his i20 N Rally1, but it all came to an abrupt end on the first stage of Saturday afternoon – Soysambu 2.
Lappi had already suffered propshaft problems earlier in the weekend, stopping twice on the shakedown with the issue, but it came back to haunt him on the rally as he immediately slowed and parked on an access road when he discovered the problem.
Out front, Sébastien Ogier has put a bit more distance between himself and Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanperä.
Over the course of the morning, Rovanperä managed to slim Ogier’s lead by 0.7 seconds – losing out on the Soysambu stage but winning Elmenteita and Sleeping Warrior.
On the second pass of Soysambu which kickstarted the afternoon loop, Ogier re-established his authority by winning the stage by 6.4s to up his lead to 28.5s.
It is now a Toyota 1-2-3-4 though following Lappi’s retirement.
Elfyn Evans is back up to third, but Takamoto Katsuta is just 2.8s behind overall.
Ott Tänak was forced to change his second puncture of the Safari Rally Kenya weekend but given the large gaps towards the back end of the top 10 it didn’t cost him any position.
The M-Sport driver actually climbs up one place to sixth, but now almost four minutes behind Dani Sordo.
It wasn’t a good stage for any of the Puma Rally1s.
There was confusion for Pierre-Louis Loubet on the start-line as the marshals almost tried to start him a minute later than he should have done, while privateer driver Jourdan Serderidis lost significant engine performance through the same water-splash which caused Evans to stop in the morning
“After the splash no engine anymore, it stalled,” Serderidis said, his car sounding rough. “We restart but the engine has an issue.”
