Sébastien Ogier has transferred his Saturday morning pace into the afternoon of Safari Rally Kenya, winning his third stage in succession to gently ease himself into the podium equation.
Thierry Neuville was leading the way from Takamoto Katsuta by 28.1 seconds prior to the stage, and Katsuta held the same advantage over third-placed Ott Tänak.
Ogier meanwhile was 37.6s behind Tänak, and by outpacing the 2019 world champion on Elmenteita he’s moved himself to 35.5s behind. While on pace alone Ogier’s unlikely to overhaul the Hyundai, his form is keeping him in the hunt.
Tänak though has eyes on second place, and crucially beat Katsuta by 7.9s on SS11 to narrow his deficit to the Toyota junior down to 22.3s. Katsuta said the “grip was better than I expected” but lamented some “big mistakes” which weren’t caught on WRC’s All Live service.
Neuville pulled further clear of Katsuta too, extending his lead beyond the half-minute mark to 32.5s but wasn’t particularly pleased when he crossed the line; setting the third-fastest time.
Photo: Hyundai Motorsport
“I had a nice clean stage but again I had to brake down in the longest straight to avoid the zebra that was standing in the middle of the road,” he said. Neuville had altercations with the local wildlife on two of the morning’s stages too.
“I lost maybe four or five seconds there but otherwise a good, clean run.”
Adrien Fourmaux nicked 1.8s from his M-Sport team-mate Gus Greensmith on SS11, but still faces a 37.6s deficit to fifth place overall. Instead, Fourmaux’s focus was on improving where he had felt he’d fallen short on the first pass.
“This morning we were too careful in this stage so we decided to push with the right pace,” he said. “I’m happy with my drive so we need to continue that way.”
Elfyn Evans had slipped behind Dani Sordo on the final stage before service but outpaced the road-sweeping Hyundai by 1.8s on Elmenteita 2, moving ahead by 0.2s.
Photo: Hyundai Motorsport
The pair started Saturday in 19th and 20th position and are slowly rising up the order, but over 50 minutes behind rally leader Neuville who is counting on aid from his team-mate.
“No problems, I am just driving and trying to analyse a little bit to give information to my team-mates at the back,” explained Hyundai’s Sordo.
He was however quicker than seventh-placed Kalle Rovanperä who, with nothing to fight for, is taking things steadily with no need or reason to attack.
Lorenzo Bertelli is running third on the road and is continuing to get his Ford Fiesta WRC safely through the stages. There appeared to be a heated discussion between him and co-driver Simone Scattolin at the end of the stage but Bertelli insisted “everything is OK”.
“We were discussing a big hole,” he added.
SS11 times
1 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) 8m47.5s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +2.1s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +3.5s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +7.9s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Renaud Jamoul (M-Sport Ford) +12.0s
6 Gus Greensmith/Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) +13.8s
Leading positions after SS11
1 Neuville/Wydaeghe 2h13m06.5s
2 Katsuta/Barritt +32.5s
3 Tänak/Järveoja +54.8s
4 Ogier/Ingrassia +1m30.3s
5 Greensmith/Patterson +2m39.0s
6 Fourmaux/Jamoul +3m16.6s
7 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +11m05.5s
8 Onkar Rai/Drew Sturrock (Volkswagen) +19m17.7s
9 Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (F0rd) +25m05.7s
10 Carl Tundo/Timothy Jessop (Volkswagen) +28m50.7s
