Thierry Neuville has extended his lead of Safari Rally Kenya with the fastest time on Saturday’s opening stage, outpacing Sébastien Ogier’s Toyota by 0.9 seconds.
Compared to yesterday’s more technical, tree-lined stages, Elmenteita was open plain with a narrow track picking its way through the African outback.
Neuville – who won three tests yesterday – seemed to take to this nature of stage just as well though, beating second-placed Takamoto Katsuta by 7.5s to nudge his lead advantage up to 26.3s.
Ott Tänak, who is hoping to chase Katsuta down for second place, lost some valuable seconds when he had to check up on one of the straights as a zebra leapt across the road in front of him.
But wildlife avoided, Tänak was able to put the hammer back down and managed to gnaw 4.3s from Katsuta to trail overall by 32.7s with over half of the rally still to run.
M-Sport World Rally Team
Neuville also encountered zebras on his run, but the TV helicopter aided the rally leader as it chased the wildlife out of his path and off the rally route.
It did hamper Neuville’s pace slightly as he lost some time to Ogier through the splits, but not enough to deny him his fourth stage win of the weekend.
Gus Greensmith was on course for an incredibly strong to start to his day, on pace with fourth-placed Ogier through the early splits. While his time was still decent – 9.7s off Ogier and 10.6s quicker than sixth-placed M-Sport team-mate Adrien Fourmaux – his run was compromised towards the end as Chris Patterson appeared to lose his place on the pacenotes.
Greensmith was heard saying “wait, wait” as if to imply Patterson was too far ahead, then a mile or so later almost ran into a large rock after he exclaimed: “Faster, f****** hell.”
It proved costly as Greensmith’s deficit to Ogier grew from 6.7s to 16.4s on SS8.
Photo: M-Sport World Rally Team
Dani Sordo, Elfyn Evans, Lorenzo Bertelli and Kalle Rovanperä all restarted on Saturday – but Oliver Solberg wouldn’t reappear with the rollcage on his Hyundai damaged.
Sordo was the first car onto the stages and was beaten by Evans by 4.8s on Elmenteita. Rovanperä, who is actually seventh overall despite retiring on Friday’s final stage, was in conservation mode with a seven-minute gap to Fourmaux ahead and tied with Evans on SS9; four seconds quicker than Fourmaux.
SS8 times
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) 9m01.4s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) +0.9s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +3.2s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +7.5s
5 Gus Greensmith/Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) +10.6s
6 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +17.2s
Leading positions after SS8
1 Neuville/Wydaeghe 1h32m20.5s
2 Katsuta/Barritt +26.3s
3 Tänak/Järveoja +59.0s
4 Ogier/Ingrassia +1m50.3s
5 Greensmith/Patterson +2m06.7s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Renaud Jamoul (M-Sport Ford) +2m40.3s
7 Rovanperä/Halttunen +9m47.4s
8 Onkar Rai/Drew Sturrock (Volkswagen) +13m40.0s
9 Daniel Chwist/Kamil Heller (Ford) +16m26.6s
10 Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford) +18m36.6s
