Thierry Neuville leads Safari Rally Kenya despite a rear-left puncture as his victory rival Kalle Rovanperä got swallowed by fesh-fesh and had to retire.
Neuville led Rovanperä by 10 seconds at the beginning of Friday’s final stage, Oserian 2, before it all turned completely on its head.
Rovanperä looked set to gain position as Neuville began haemorrhaging time with a rear-left puncture as well as a front-right tire knocked off the rim. It cost him 39.8s to joint stage winners Sébastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta.
There also appeared to be an issue with the engine in Neuville’s Hyundai, as he somewhat explained: “The biggest issues weren’t the tires in this stage.
“Obviously we got to the end but we need to go back to service now, there’s some things to check.”
Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing
Third-placed Ott Tänak would’ve moved into the lead and passed his team-mate had he not also picked up a puncture; his delamination coming on the front-right which was where his sole hard compound tire was situated. The rubber had wrapped itself around the suspension in his wheel arch, making it an impressive drive from Tänak to make it to the end.
He was 15.1s slower than Neuville but remains third, with Toyota junior Katsuta 37s up the road and just 18.8s shy of the lead.
“That’s a surprise!” exclaimed Katsuta. “I was almost four times stopped on stage because of dust.
“In the beginning of the stage is like hell. But OK, I’m happy to finish this day.”
It was this dust that was Rovanperä’s downfall. From the start of the stage, his Toyota began to bog down at points in the loose, soft sand.
Photo: M-Sport World Rally Team
At points it was impossible for Rovanperä to see, and that was ultimately what led to his retirement. Driving blind, his Yaris WRC veered off the line and got stuck next to the road.
The stage was interrupted as Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen had to be towed out of the ditch. They had then looked to continue – which would be allowed without penalties under event regulations due to the thick levels of fesh-fesh that can cause a safety concern – before electing to park up instead.
The reason for this is unconfirmed, but as he lost more than 10 minutes stuck stage-side and 10 minutes is the penalty he will receive for not completing the test, it’s likely retiring was seen as the preferable option.
Toyota’s Ogier, who described his stage as “a disaster” (before all the drama really kicked off) as he battled a blocked radiator in the fesh fesh, actually moved up to fourth and joint won the stage, overhauling M-Sport’s Gus Greensmith by 6.7s.
Greensmith is fifth and M-Sport team-mate Adrien Fourmaux is sixth, with the latter declaring himself “happy with my pace” as he set the third fastest time.
Photo: M-Sport World Rally Team
“I do feel for Kalle because you get there, you can’t see anything,” added Greensmith. “Luckily I had the hindsight of what happened to Kalle, just smashed the wipers on and buried it.”
SS7 times
1 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) 12m52.1s
2 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +0.0s
3 Adrien Fourmaux/Renaud Jamoul (M-Sport Ford) + 3.3s
4 Gus Greensmith/Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) +8.9s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +39.8s
6 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +54.9s
Leading positions after SS7
1 Neuville/Wydaeghe 1h23m19.1s
2 Katsuta/Barritt +18.8s
3 Tänak/Järveoja +55.8s
4 Ogier/Ingrassia +1m49.4s
5 Greensmith/Patterson +1m56.1s
6 Fourmaux/Jamoul +2m19.1s
7 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +9m30.2s
8 Onkar Rai/Drew Sturrock (Volkswagen) +12m10.5s
9 Daniel Chwist/Kamil Heller (Ford) +15m05.6s
10 Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford) +16m58.3s
