Overwhelming. That’s how Kalle Rovanperä’s performance on Friday of the Safari Rally Kenya can be described in just one word. The driver finished the first full day of this World Rally Championship (WRC) event with almost a minute advantage. The weather started sunny with dry ground, but rain arrived with intermittent showers in the last stage.
In SS 2 (Loldia 1), which kicked off Friday, the Finnish Toyota driver was the fastest, surpassing Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) by nine tenths to take the lead. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) had set the fastest time in the opening super special stage, but the fourth time in this stage threw him to the same overall position.
The starting shot for a stellar day for Rovanperä was given, and the two-time world champion was also the fastest in the next two stages to finish the first part of the day with over 15 seconds advantage. Neuville, on the other hand, collided with a bank outside a corner and punctured a wheel in SS 3, costing him over 19 seconds.
In the afternoon, Rovanperä once again achieved a clean sweep of stage wins, finishing the day 56.9s ahead of Elfyn Evans (Toyota). The British driver ended the day overtaking Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), who is now over a minute off the lead. Neuville is fourth, with Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford) in fifth.
SS 5 took Lappi out of the race due to a broken transmission, while the following stage left Ott Tänak (Hyundai) out of contention after hitting a rock in the middle of the road that threw him into the bank. At the time of the incidents, both drivers were in second place in the standings.
In WRC2, top contenders have fallen behind, including Oliver Solberg (Skoda) who suffered a puncture in SS3 and SS4, or Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Skoda) who had mechanical issues in SS4. The Polish driver is currently second in the category, but more than three minutes behind leader Gus Greensmith (Skoda) who already has four stage wins.
Despite the problems, Kajetanowicz is leading the WRC2 Challenger, in a tight battle with Nicolas Ciamin (Hyundai) with the two separated by 26.4s. The third in the category is Diego Domínguez Jr. (Citroën), who briefly held second place behind Ciamin before Kajetanowicz regained positions in SS5 to become the leader.
Top ten overall after SS7:
