Grégoire Munster’s Safari Rally Kenya has gone from bad to worse on the second stage of Friday, as he crawled through the test with suspension damage.
The M-Sport driver had been a fine third overall after Thursday’s two spectator-friendly stages but lost a minute on Friday’s opening Camp Moran test when he was caught in the dust of Sami Pajari ahead, who had stopped to change a puncture.
That left Munster a frustrated fifth, but it all became academic when his rear-right suspension was damaged on Loldia – the wheel pointing at an angle and out of place.
Munster working on his car on the road section
“We were on a rough section and suddenly something snapped,” Munster commented. “Felt like a driveshaft and an arm, let’s see.”
He lost over three minutes in the process to drop to the rear of the Rally1 field. But he and co-driver Louis Louka remain in the rally after work on the road section between SS4 and SS5.
Out front, Ott Tänak won his third stage in succession to extend his lead to 15.4s over Elfyn Evans. Kalle Rovanperä remains third but dropped 17.7s on SS4 with a spin, which took several goes to straighten as he lost the Toyota on an incredibly narrow corner.
