Thierry Neuville continues to lead Safari Rally Kenya after Saturday morning’s three stages, but Sébastien Ogier is the man that’s setting the pace with a second stage win in succession.
The ominously titled Sleeping Warrior stage threatened to capture the unwary, and indeed the final sections of the stage in particular were incredibly rocky and treacherous.
Ott Tänak, who was second quickest, described the conditions: “It’s difficult with these artificial stones and it’s very different from the recce. Just the last part is rough, but the rest is OK.”
Ogier was the man that tamed the challenge with the most ease, admitting he was slightly “worried” about his pacenotes for the stage but in the end he was “comfortable” and “had a good feeling”.
In going 5.9 seconds faster than Tänak, Ogier is quietly edging himself closer to the podium with a 37.6s deficit to third place. In turn, Tänak is taking small swipes out of second-placed Takamoto Katsuta too; the gap between them standing at 28.1s.
Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing
“Maybe I enjoy but maybe not, I don’t know!” said Katsuta after SS10. “Very difficult and demanding. Some section you don’t know where you are, it’s hard.”
Neuville was only fourth fastest on Sleeping Warrior, dropping 0.8s to Katsuta but with an advantage of 28.1s – the same as the gap between second and third – there was no need for the Hyundai driver to push.
On previous stages the rally leader had dealt with zebras but he made some new friends on SS10.
“I had the giraffes so I needed to stop my speed in some places,” he said. “But I had a clean stage, took it maybe a little bit too careful on the last part but everything is fine.”
Adrien Fourmaux’s pace dropped massively compared to his strong second-fastest time on the previous test as he lost the roof vent on his Ford Fiesta WRC.
“It was really, really difficult with the dust inside the car, really difficult to see,” he said.
Fourmaux remains sixth, 39.4s behind his fifth-placed M-Sport team-mate Gus Greensmith after losing 16.1s to him on SS10.
In their fairly meaningless battle at the tail end of the top 20, Elfyn Evans had bested Dani Sordo on both of the previous two stages on Saturday but lost 21.1s on the loop’s final challenge.
Both drivers are unlikely to score many – if any – championship points this weekend but Evans was passed by Sordo on the stage, trailing by 1.6s. The two started the day separated by 12.3s as they retired on the same stage on Friday and therefore incurred identical penalties.
Evans was frustrated by spotting a car running “within 10 meters” of the stage and also appeared to have some brief pacenote niggles, as he warned co-driver Scott Martin he was “talking too fast” early on the stage.
Sordo’s speed was strong though as he clocked in the fifth-fastest stage time – slower only than the four at the head of the field.
Photo: M-Sport World Rally Team
Onker Rai is leading WRC3 in eighth overall in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, a comfortable 2m56.6s clear of Karen Patel who is carrying 40s worth of time penalties for being late to two separate time controls.
Carl Tundo, five-time winner of the Safari, rounds out the top 10 and the provisional WRC3 podium. In 11th is Rally3 runner Jeremy Wahome, who is contesting his first ever rally.
SS10 times
1 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) 17m26.6s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +5.9s
3 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +9.3s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +10.1s
5 Dani Sordo/Borja Rozada (Hyundai) +17.4s
6 Gus Greensmith/Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) +24.0s
Leading positions after SS10
1 Neuville/Wydaeghe 2h04m15.5s
2 Katsuta/Barritt +28.1s
3 Tänak/Järveoja +56.2s
4 Ogier/Ingrassia +1m33.8s
5 Greensmith/Patterson +2m28.7s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Renaud Jamoul (M-Sport Ford) +3m08.1s
7 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +10m49.0s
8 Onkar Rai/Drew Sturrock (Volkswagen) +17m46.9s
9 Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford) +23m38.0s
10 Carl Tundo/Timothy Jessop (Volkswagen) +27m45.6s
