Sébastien Ogier continues to lead Safari Rally Kenya, but Kalle Rovanperä is refusing to lie down having narrowed his advantage to 13.6 seconds over Sunday’s first loop.
With no team orders in place at Toyota, Ogier and Rovanperä were theoretically free to fight but expectation was that, with his championship head on, Rovanperä wouldn’t challenge his rally-leading team-mate.
Heading into the final day, Rovanperä was 16.7s adrift.
But on Sunday’s opening stage, Rovanperä went for it and grabbed 8.1s from Ogier to suddenly close to just 8.6s behind.
That forced Ogier to respond, and the eight-time champion did so beautifully by stealing 8.6s back on the middle test of the loop – despite losing his tailgate after a small collision in a fesh-fesh section.
Rovanperä then hit back on Hells’ Gate, surviving a wild moment where he clipped a bank
“I was caught out a bit in the ruts,” the world champion explained, “but I’m not feeling too good with the car to be honest, I’m fighting way too much with the car.”
Ogier, affected by the lack of rear wing with his missing tailgate, was only fifth fastest on SS16, losing another 3.3s to Rovanperä. But that was solid damage limitation.
“A good stage for sure, without the wings in the high speed it was not easy,” Ogier said. “All good.”
Elfyn Evans looks secure in third place with Takamoto Katsuta now 35.7s behind, struggling without hybrid for two of the morning’s three stages.
Toyota therefore is on course for its second 1-2-3-4 finish in Kenya in a row.
M-Sport pair Ott Tänak and Pierre-Louis Loubet have had a quiet morning, but remain in sixth and seventh places overall.
Loubet is over six minutes behind his team-mate with Tänak – who won the stage which doubles up as the powerstage later – four minutes down on fifth-placed Dani Sordo who lost power-steering on Hell’s Gate.
Thierry Neuville remains ninth, 46.4s behind WRC2 leader Kajetan Kajetanowicz who is eighth overall.
Kajetanowicz could lose another spot as Oliver Solberg is hunting him down for the RC2 class win. However that will have no effect on the WRC2 championship as Solberg hasn’t registered for points in Kenya.
Esapekka Lappi successfully guided his Hyundai through the morning loop, despite its suspected propshaft issue.
The Finn was driving a front-wheel-drive i20 N Rally1 with the rear differential “not working at all”.
He added: “We go to service and try again!”
