Rallying-Rovanpera Dominates First Leg Of Safari Rally In Toyota 1-2-3

Double world champion Kalle Rovenpera led a Toyota one-two-three after dominating the opening leg of Safari Rally Kenya on Friday.

The Finn, who’s competing solely part-time this season, gained all six of the day’s phases to take a 56.9 second lead over Elfyn Evans with Takamoto Katsuta in third place.

“It has been a really good day for us,” mentioned Rovanpera of the tough gravel phases round Lake Naivasha. “I felt I could manage the pace quite well.

“I was quite happy pushing hard when the conditions were good, and then especially this afternoon taking care of the car and the tyres in the rough places and still we could have good times.”

Hyundai’s Espekka Lappi and Ott Tanak each retired, the primary with a transmission failure and the latter after breaking his automobile’s steering when he hit a rock and pitched into an earth financial institution whereas working in second place.

Championship chief Thierry Neuville, who was quickest in Thursday’s brief opening stage, dropped to fourth place in his Hyundai after struggling tyre harm within the morning however coming again strongly within the afternoon.

“I tried to push as much as I could but it was a challenging day. Obviously the puncture made us lose a lot of time,” mentioned the Belgian.

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux was in fifth place with workforce mate Gregoire Munster sixth.

Saturday, the longest day of the rally, options one other six phases and a complete aggressive distance of 160.96km, with rain forecast.

“If some big rain comes we know that the gaps can be huge and you can lose a lot of time,” mentioned Rovanpera. “So we’ll just try to keep on working the same way as we did today.”

(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Reuters)