Toyota locks out the top four positions of Safari Rally Kenya after a slow front-right puncture dropped Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville from third to sixth.
Toyota, which recorded a 1-2-3-4 last year in Africa, is chasing its 10th World Rally Championship win in Kenya this weekend.
After three stages, Sébastien Ogier leads team-mate Kalle Rovanperä by 11.9s seconds having edged him by a couple of seconds on Geothermal, but Elfyn Evans has moved up to third and Takamoto Katsuta into fourth as Neuville hit problems.
Neuville was slowest of the factory Rally1 cars on SS3, dropping 12.5s on SS3, to slip to sixth – 23.2s off the lead.
Esapekka Lappi now leads Hyundai’s charge after winning the Geothermal stage by 1.2s over Ogier – his first ever Safari stage win.
Ott Tänak is seventh overall, six tenths down on former team-mate Neuville but was beaten by current team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet on the stage.
Loubet reported an engine issue after Friday’s first stage but was back at full speed on SS3.
