Kenya – Evans finishes the morning more than a minute ahead of Rovanperä

The Safari Rally is definitely tough! Once again, the drivers WRC faced very particular conditions on the first three special stages of a royal Saturday. On the Sleeping Warrior, Elmenteita and Soysambu sections, the rains of last night slightly masked the rough nature of the terrain. This was, however, replaced by torrents of mud in which some cars went pirouetting, but fortunately without getting stuck for good.

In this little game, it was Elfyn Evans who proved to be the best, achieving two scratch finishes and then a third place. The Welshman from Toyota was also not bothered by punctures on the drier sections at the end of the special stages. Quite the opposite for his teammate Kalle Rovanperä, who suffered two punctures in total. The second, which occurred on SS13, was particularly detrimental, causing him to lose more than a minute on the best time. Overall, the Finn is now 1'32″5 behind his teammate. His second place is now in danger, with a Ott Tänak serious and diligent, which is only 17 seconds away.

The Hyundai are clearly less fast than the Toyotas, and Thierry Neuville also suffered a puncture in the morning loop, while losing a lot of time to Takamoto Katsuta on each of the special stages. The Belgian is now fifth, 1'29″4 behind the Japanese who set the best time on SS13. Adrien fourmaux and Alexandre Coria did not take to the road this morning, the Korean brand wishing to preserve its machine for Super Sunday, where many points are up for grabs.

In WRC2, too, some of the category leaders were affected by the unexpected. Kajetan Kajetanowicz, who was leading after Friday's race, immediately encountered problems and had to repair his left rear wheel. This was a win for Gus Greensmith, who then took the lead. The Briton suffered a puncture on SS12, and with no spare wheel, he had to adopt a very cautious pace on SS13. This allowed Spaniard Jan Solans to take the lead. rally with his Toyota, twelve seconds ahead of Greensmith's Skoda.

Continuation of this Saturday at 13:05 p.m. French time, with a second run through the three special stages of the day.

Rally Kenya – Overall after SS13

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