Safari Rally – SS1: Solberg crushes the competition in the chaos!

Extremely tricky conditions and already some very large gaps in the Safari Rally after the first special stage! This morning's sunshine gave way to rain on this first 24,35-kilometer run through Camp Moran. Plenty of mud and river crossings were present, making things even more challenging for all the drivers who set off at 14:05 PM French time. The first significant incident involved Takamoto Katsuta, who suffered a radio problem. His co-driver, Aaron Johnston, had to give him pace notes by waving his hands, already costing the crew time.

Despite his starting position, second on the road behind Elfyn Evans, Oliver Solberg seemed to walk on water, setting a time of 22:56.2, thus being the only one able to truly attack despite mud having penetrated the cockpit of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. His Welsh teammate is already 30 seconds behind, but the situation is even worse behind: conditions deteriorated as the drivers started the special stage. Sébastien Ogier, who set the 3rd fastest time, more or less salvaged the situation by conceding "only" 39,3 seconds to Elfyn Evans; Katsuta finds himself 1:15.7 behind the Swedish leader, while the Hyundai are already relegated extremely far down in the rankings!

Thierry Neuville, Adrien fourmaux Esapekka Lappi lost over two minutes to Oliver Solberg on this stage: 2:13.3 for the Belgian, 2:17.4 for the Frenchman, and 2:40.8 for the reigning Finnish champion. Sami Pajari fared slightly better with the 5th fastest time, 2:10.2 behind the leader. Jon Armstrong, however, distinguished himself by losing only 4,8 seconds to Adrien Fourmaux and moving ahead of Lappi, while Josh McErlean struggled and is already more than 1 minute 30 seconds behind his Irish teammate. The next stage of the rally will start at 15:43 pm French time and will be 8,86 kilometers long.

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WRC – Safari Rally
The classification of SS1:

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