Thierry Neuville leads Hyundai team-mate Adrien Fourmaux on Super Sunday at Safari Rally Kenya, with Elfyn Evans still on course for the rally win.
The big news of Sunday morning however was the retirement of Kalle Rovanperä – the Finn parking up on the road section after the day’s opening test with a flat battery.
Sixth-placed Grégoire Munster is also in trouble – his M-Sport dramatically losing power and barely managing to cross the finish-line of Hell’s Gate, the final stage of the loop before a short 15-minute service.
Given Evans’ strong championship lead and the fact he heads the field in Africa, the onus was on his rivals to go for an attack on Sunday to try and limit the damage.
Neuville is currently the one going quickest, holding a 3.3s advantage over Fourmaux who won the Hell’s Gate test.
Hyundai elected to retire the Frenchman from Saturday’s stages to save the car for Sunday, after he retired from both Thursday and Friday’s legs.
Takamoto Katsuta is the leading Toyota in the Sunday standings in third and has shown threatening pace, but after Rovanperä’s retirement there’s renewed importance for him to bank Toyota manufacturer points.
Katsuta’s morning has been ragged though. A spin on Mzabibu likely cost him fastest time, before he massively outbraked himself on Oserengoni and took a trip through the undergrowth. He still won the stage however.
Katsuta is 4.2s off the Super Sunday lead, 0.8s clear of Ott Tänak who led the Sunday charge after the opening stage but has slipped down the standings thereafter.
Rally leader Evans is set for one bonus point in fifth, 24.1s off Neuville, but more importantly still holds a strong 1m38.3s lead of the rally.
In WRC2 meanwhile, Gus Greensmith is now looking comfortable at the head of the pack as rival Jan Solans rolled on SS18. The Spaniard was able to continue and is still second but lost three minutes.
