Kenya Notebook: Morning excitement

At 7 a.m. this morning, the sun had barely passed the crest of the hills surrounding Lake Naivasha when the first difficulty of the day already presented itself.

Having obviously overindulged in the party given in the neighboring field, one person had not found a better parking space than in front of the hotel exit gate... preventing any movement!

At the service park, however, there were no logistical problems. All the teams were waiting for their crews who regularly left the parc ferme. Dani Sordo was the first to join Hyundai followed by Elfyn Evans at Toyota. Short at 15 minutes, this sequence did not allow for major intervention. While some of the mechanics assigned to the car Thierry Neuville carried out a purge (pressure, open, closed, etc.), others took the opportunity to evacuate the last blades of grass from Friday from the engine compartment.

While among the pros the organization is tight, among the amateurs installed under a huge marquee, it is a little less… orderly. Some competitors have original storage with all the equipment piled up in a skip or simply thrown into the back of a pick-up.

Others, on the contrary, try to imitate factories with well-thought-out layouts. Seeking to be efficient, the boss of a structure brought together his mechanics to give a short briefing on what will need to change. A temperamental brake caliper will ultimately require the intervention of 4 people, but the Fiesta Rally2 will leave the park with an older part. Damaged during contact with a tree, Carl Tundo's Polo filled with dust which a member of the team tried to remove using a very practical vacuum cleaner. Even if some drivers received penalties, all returned to face the Saturday specials.