Kalle Rovanperä is dominating the Safari Rally Kenya, the third round of the World Rally Championship (WRC), in a devastating way. With six stages to go, the Toyota driver has a lead of over two minutes at the top of the standings. This Saturday there was some mud, after the rains of the last few days.
During the morning, the stages had three different winners: Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) won SS 8 (Soysambu 1), while Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) set the pace in the following stage of Elmenteita. In SS 10 (Sleeping Warrior 1), Rovanperä posted the fastest time.
Despite the variety of winners, the Finn was consistent, avoided problems, and strengthened his lead in the standings, now having almost a minute and a half advantage. Ott Tänak (Hyundai) had new technical issues with the car in SS 8 and lost a lot of time, while his teammate Esapekka Lappi damaged a wheel and also lost time.
Elfyn Evans started the stage in second place overall, but suffered a puncture in his Toyota that cost him precious time. Evans’ problems moved Neuville back into podium positions, and the Belgian even overtook Katsuta to become the second-placed driver in SS 10.
However, he started the afternoon with a breakdown in the i20 N Rally1, which took him out of contention. Katsuta was again the winner in SS 11, where he regained second place in the rally and Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford) moved up to third, ahead of Neuville. Rovanperä remained solid and now had a lead of over two minutes. This lead was consolidated in the next stage, won by Evans, although he lost some ground in SS 13 (Sleeping Warrior 2). The fastest was Tänak.
Thierry Neuville was forced to complete SS11 in EV mode due to engine issues ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/EjP0RRYxam
— World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) March 30, 2024
Neste momento, o bicampeão do mundo lidera com 2m08,9s de avanço para Katsuta, sendo Fourmaux terceiro. Evans e Neuville completam o top cinco na frente de Gus Greensmith (Skoda). O britânico foi o mais rápido do WRC2 em duas das seis classificativas de sábado, liderando a categoria com 1m55s de margem para Oliver Solberg (Skoda) – que ditou o ritmo nos outros quatro troços. Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Skoda) é terceiro, estando no topo do WRC2 Challenger com um avanço de 5m04,44s perante Nicolas Ciamin (Hyundai). O polaco apenas perdeu a PEC 8 para Diego Domínguez Jr. (Citroën) nas contas do WRC2 Challenger eeste sábado. Charles Munster, também em Hyundai, está em terceiro.
Anwar Hamza, único do WRC3, continua em prova, ao passo que Carl Tundo (Ford) lidera a WRC2 Masters Cup com 37,2s de avanço perante George Vasilakis (Ford) – naquela que é a categoria mais equilibrada neste momento.
Top dez da geral após a PEC 13:
