Kalle Rovanperä tops the leader board for day one after successfully negotiating his way through one of trickiest Friday legs in Safari Rally history.
The Finn dumped erstwhile Safari Rally leader Elfyn Evans out of the podium positions while defending champion Sebastian Ogier lies sixth in the table after scoring three fastest stages out of the seven sections.
Evans was closely followed by Hyundai’s Ott Tanak who managed to reach service in third spot, 25.3s adrift, despite losing 36.4s to a snapped gear lever in the morning.
Takamoto Katsuta completed the day’s six stages in fourth ahead of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), while Ogier dropped 2m21.6.
The high-speed gravel event saw former world rally champion Sébastien Loeb bowing out after his Ford encountered mechanical failure.
Rovanperä was pleased to be carrying a 22.4sec buffer into Saturday’s monster leg despite being on road-opening duties.
“I think we did a good job,” reflected Rovanperä. The plan was to be fast and safe and we are in a good position now, but tomorrow will be very challenging,” the Toyota Yaris driver told the WRC portal.
“I’ve never really experienced anything like this before. Last year we didn’t have this many soft sections of road, so that was something a bit new.
“Of course, it’s always challenging here. There was still some [road] cleaning on the second pass, but other than that we have enjoyed the stages – except the last one – I think we all felt relieved to finish that.”
Kenyan driver Jeremy Wahome bowed out of the action for the day after his Ford Fiesta stopped with mechanical failure.
Saturday’s competition will be based around Lake Elementaita where the drivers will cover 150.88km , the longest leg of the weekend.
Leading positions after SS7:
- Kalle Rovenpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota Yaris) 1:20:58.1
- Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota Yaris) 1:21:20.5
- Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai) 1:25:55.6
- Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota Yaris) 1:21:24.7
- Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) 1:2123.4
- Sébastien Ogier/Benjamin Veillas (Toyota Yaris) 1:23:06.3
- Oliver Solberg/Elliott EdmonDson (Hyundai) 1:25:25.2
- Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Ford) 1:35:36.3
