Elfyn Evans dropped from second to fifth place after the tough stages of Saturday morning. Kalle Rovanperä is walking a fine line between speed and caution at the Safari Rally Kenya, maintaining a significant lead of 1 minute and 27.9 seconds. However, his Toyota teammates, as well as rivals Esapekka Lappi and Ott Tanak, faced difficulties in the adverse conditions.
The previous Toyota domination, with a 1-2-3 position, was shaken due to tire issues faced by Evans and Takamoto’s GR Yaris. Evans suffered punctures in Soysambu and Sleeping Warrior, while Katsuta faced similar problems in the final stage. As a result, Evans dropped to fifth place and Katsuta to third, allowing Thierry Neuville of Hyundai to move up to second overall. Despite the significant lead, Rovanperä acknowledged the challenge of maintaining a safe balance between speed and caution.
Neuville showed a strong comeback after facing his own tire issues on Friday. The only complaint he had was a strong bump at the end of the rain-soaked stage of Sleeping Warrior. However, Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi, his teammates from the i20 N, faced more significant problems. Both retired on Friday but restarted the race. Tänak had to stop in SS8 to secure a loose hood pin, and an intercom failure forced him to rely on manual signals from co-driver Martin Järveoja in the following test. Lappi had damage to two tires.
A frustrated Katsuta finished in third place, 55.0 seconds behind Neuville. M-Sport Ford’s young driver, Adrien Fourmaux, moved up to fourth place in his Puma, trailing by 27.7 seconds. Grégoire Munster retired from the race with a broken rear suspension after SS8. Gus Greensmith maintained his dominance in the WRC2 category, securing sixth place ahead of Oliver Solberg in his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Jourdan Serderidis, Kajetan Kajetanowicz, and Nicolas Ciamin completed the top ten positions.
