Ott Tänak has Takamoto Katsuta’s second place firmly in his sights as he grabbed his first ever stage win on Safari Rally Kenya to close to just 14.5 seconds behind.
Tänak was cautious on the first day in Africa, admitting he was pushing at only 60% with the fear of doing damage.
But with Saturday’s stages more consistent and less arduous, the 2019 world champion has put his foot down and has began eroding his deficit to Toyota junior Katsuta. Tänak took an ominous bite out of the gap on the second run through Soysambu, stealing 6.8s.
“The first objective is to finish the day but yeah of course we want to keep the pressure,” he said. “We can keep the rhythm as it’s not so rough so not so much risk.”
Katsuta however wasn’t too concerned.
Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing
“No it’s OK, just focus on my job,” he said, when asked if he was feeling the pressure from Tänak. “It’s going to be tight but I try to manage it but no pressure, it’s OK.”
Championship leader Sébastien Ogier was the second fastest man on SS12, ceding a second to Tänak to trail by 36.5s in fourth overall. A podium bid looks very unlikely unless others hit trouble.
“The gaps are too big but we try our best,” agreed Ogier. “There’s not much we can do, so keep some speed and see.”
Thierry Neuville’s lead of the rally remains intact, and despite losing 5.3s to team-mate Tänak his lead advantage ballooned again as he was faster than Katsuta. The Hyundai’s advantage over the Toyota now stands at exactly 35s.
The two M-Sport cars of Gus Greensmith and Adrien Fourmaux were fifth and sixth quickest on the stage to occupy those same positions overall.
Greensmith “got lost a bit in the notes” towards the end and got “too close to a rock” but things were more dramatic for Fourmaux who, when taking a left-hand cut, was launched onto two wheels.
“I had one moment just before the watersplash,” he confirmed. “The car goes too much in so it was a quite hot moment!”
Elfyn Evans, running down in the bottom half of the top 20 following his Friday retirement, set a very strong pace on Soysambu 2 considering his position of second car onto the stage. He outpaced Dani Sordo by 15.5s and was quicker than Kalle Rovanperä too.
Rovanperä had a brief scare as he momentarily left the road in his Toyota, outbraking himself for a tight section and sliding onto some grass for a few seconds. Rovanperä, lying seventh, quickly corrected it though and was back on his way, stopping the final clocks 9.7s slower than team-mate Evans.
“In one corner we went off to the field a little bit but nothing serious, we’re just driving through,” he said.
SS12 times
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) 13m52.7s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) +1.0s
3 Gus Greensmith/Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) +5.1s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +5.3s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +7.8s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Renaud Jamoul (M-Sport Ford) +9.2s
Leading positions after SS12
1 Neuville/Wydaeghe 2h27m04.5s
2 Katsuta/Barritt +35.0s
3 Tänak/Järveoja +49.5s
4 Ogier/Ingrassia +1m26.0s
5 Greensmith/Patterson +2m38.8s
6 Fourmaux/Jamoul +3m20.5s
7 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +11m22.4s
8 Onkar Rai/Drew Sturrock (Volkswagen) +21m48.3s
9 Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford) +27m13.2s
10 Carl Tundo/Timothy Jessop (Volkswagen) +30m20.6s
