Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia set the pace on Thursday afternoon’s Safari Rally curtain raiser in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Toyota driver completed the 4.84km Super Special Kasarani in 3 minutes 21.5 while winning head-to-head run against his team-mate Kalle Rovanperä by 0.3 sec.
Elfyn Evans completed a Toyota Gazoo Racing clean sweep of the top three, the Welshman a further 0.4sec back.
“Tomorrow is going to be the real start. It has been amazing to see so much crowd. Tomorrow some tough stuff is coming,” said Ogier.
Earlier, the Safari Rally was flagged off from the start at the Kenyatta Conference Centre by Kenyan President, His Excellency Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta and Dr. Amina Mohammed, Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage and Culture of Kenya.
This marked a 19-year wait for the WRC event to return to the country and it has 58 crews from different nationalities.
The rally proceeds to Naivaisha where they will battle through 18 competitive stages covering 320.19 km from Friday to Sunday.
Top position after SS1
1 Sebastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) 3 minutes 21.5 seconds
2 Kalle Rovanpera / Jonne Harttune (Toyota) + 0.3s
2 Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin (Toyota) + 0.7s
4 Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) + 2.5s
5 Thierry Neuville / Martin Widege (Hyundai) + 5.0s
6 Takamoto Katsuta / Daniel Barritt (Toyota) + 5.6s
7 Gus Greensmith / Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) + 6.1s
8 Oliver Solberg / Aaron Johnston (Hyundai) +7.9 seconds
9 Lorenzo Bertelli (M-Sport Ford) +9.0 seconds
10 Adrien Fourmaux / Renault Jamor (M-Sport Ford) +9.6 seconds
Additional Information: WRC
