Rovanpera takes early Safari Rally lead ahead of day III vroom

Kalle Rovanpera produced a stunning drive in the last stage of day two to take the lead of the WRC Safari Rally.

Rovanpera trounced his rivals in the Kedong 2 stage clocking 17.43.2 in the 31.25KM stage which proved tough and punishing for the majority of the drivers.

He now leads the Safari by 22.4 seconds ahead of Toyota Gazoo teammate Elfyn Evans, and Hyundai’s Ott Tanak who finished the day third on the log.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Rovanpera played down his chances insisting his only focus was to have a clean drive.

“I just tried to have a clean stage and avoid all the issues and the distractions. Last year we didn’t handle the fesh fesh so well so I just tried to do a better job this year and it’s always so difficult so you try to choose the best way to go.”

Rovanpera said he had a slight advantage being the first one to start the stages and he’s hoping to stay away from trouble tomorrow in order to stay at the top.

“I think we can be quite happy that we were opening the roads today so it’s not the fastest place to be in all stages and the plan is to have a clean day tomorrow without any issues.”

Elfyn Evans has been impressive in the other Toyota, as the Japanese based manufacturer looked a cut above the rest of the pack.

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak put up a spirited performance to close the day third, having started the day with a little bit of misfortune after he snapped his gear lever and having to use a wheel spanner as a makeshift lever for the morning loop.

“Unfortunately for the first stage we lost the gear lever so we lost a bit ot time there. After that we were able to fix it a little with the few tools we had in the car and for the next stages we managed to make it work.”

It didn’t take long before the Safari rally served a hot reminder to all the drivers of why it’s the most dreaded rallying event in the world, as the majority struggled to find their footing in the sandy and rocky roads.

“The fesh fesh is quite tricky; it’s a very long section and at the same time very slow between the bushes so it’s difficult to carry any speed and no visibility because you’re just under the sand all the time so with a small car it’s quite demanding,” remarked Tanak.

Tanak was not alone in complaining about the sandy Kedong stage as it forced the M-Sports duo of Sebastian Loeb and Adrien Fourmaux to retire.

Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta finished the day fourth ahead of Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville who complained all day for lack of power, saying he was only managing the car to stay in contention.

“I am driving and trying to improve the car. I am not happy at all and I am fighting hard to at least be able to get some good times. There's not much more we can do at the moment. The car was full of dust from mid-stage. Visibility was very bad and we had a puncture on the last 5km. It was an interesting stage and we tried to survive, but with the dust it was very difficult.”

Defending champion Sebastian Ogier ended the day only sixth 2.08.2 behind Rovanpera and 2.18.9 ahead of seventh placed Oliver Solberg.

1.     Kalle Rovanperä        1hr 20min 58.1sec

2.     Elfyn Evans               +22.4sec

3.     Ott Tänak                   +25.3sec

4.     Takamoto Katsuta      +26.6sec

5.     Thierry Neuville        +57.5sec

6.     Sebastian Ogier                    +2min 8.2sec

7.     Oliver Solberg                     +2min 18.9 sec

 In the WRC2 category, Kenya’s Akhif Virani managed fifth position ahead of Singh Rai and Karan Patel who finished 6th and 7th consecutively.

McRae Kimathi driving a Ford Fiesta 3 won three stages in the WRC3 category to end the day second, behind the impressive Maxine Wahome in the other Ford Fiesta 3, who showed a lot of determination and skill to end the day top of the pile.

Hamza Anwar was fourth and Jeremy Wahome 5th in the WRC3 category showing a tough trend for the Kenyan drivers who will hope for a better day tomorrow as the WRC Safari rally enters the third day.