Thierry Neuville has dropped out of the first place on WRC Safari Rally Kenya, parking his Hyundai i20 after Sunday’s opening Loldia speed test.
Neuville has been leading the duo of Takamoto Katsuta and Sébastien Ogier, but a stone damaged the suspension of the car midway through the test.
His plans to attack were thwarted as the damage was too great to continue and Neuville’s African adventure was over.
It’s a bitter blow for both team and driver, and releases Katsuta and Ogier into a clear two minutes overall lead, managing to win three stages so far.
Adrien Fourmaux won the Loldia stage which marks M-Sport’s first of the 2021 season.It also pushed him to the forth position by 2.3s ahead of team-mate Gus Greensmith, outpacing him by 8.2s.
At the end of Saturday, Neuville was leading the race by half a minute as the Belgian was expected to climb first on the podium at the end of rally on Sunday evening.
Leading positions after SS16
1 Katsuta/Barritt 3h04m21.4s
2 Ogier/Ingrassia +0.0s
3 Tänak/Järveoja +1m09.4s
4 Fourmaux/Jamoul +1m37.1s
5 Greensmith/Patterson +1m39.4s
6 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +10m39.2s
7 Onkar Rai/Drew Sturrock (Volkswagen) +27m33.9s
8 Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford) +31m05.8s
9 Carl Tundo/Timothy Jessop (Volkswagen) +34m42.4s
10 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +49m17.0s
