Safari Rally - 4th Day: Rovanpera takes an unpredictable win, Tanak retires again



At the end of Safari Rally Kenya, Kalle Rovanpera is the winner of this event with Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta following him.


Kalle Rovanpera secured his fourth win of the season in Kenya and extended further his gap on drivers' championship. He set the fastest time in Stage 15 and was driving carefully on Sunday with the intention of getting to the finish line.


Elfyn Evans finished second overall and his gap from the first place was almost one minute.


Takamoto Katsuta completes the podium which is his second one in Kenya and in his WRC career.


Sebastien Ogier completes the 1-2-3-4 for Toyota, but unfortunately he lost the chance to repeat his last year's performance at Safari Rally. Finally, he took the three xtra points from PS as he was the third fastest driver in that stage.


Thierry Neuville finished fifth overall despite his retirement on Saturday and the time penalty he received for restarting today under the regulations of Rally2. However, he was the fastest driver in Powerstage and scored the five extra points.


Craig Breen is in sixth place on the overall classification and said at the end of Stage 16 that he felt like he had a puncture on the rear right. In addition to that, he complained at the end of Stage 17 that he had a strange feeling with his Puma which is probably suspension related.


Sebastien Loeb finished eighth at Safari in his third outing with the Puma for this season and was the fastest driver in Stage 17 and 18 while he was the second fastest driver in Stage 19 meaning that he scored four bonus points in Powerstage.


Oliver Solberg dropped to tenth from sixth as he dropped major time in Stage 14 due to the fact that his car was stick in the middle of the road and he had to change the air filter. Moreover, he ran wide in Stage 17 and was blinded by his own dust resulting in stopping as the wipers were not working and two spectators cleaned his windscreen. Finally, he was driving slowly in the next stages as the wipers continued not working.


Ott Tanak, Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith restarted today under the regulations of Rally2.


Fourmaux and Tanak set the fastest time in Stage 14 and 16 respectively, but the last one was forced to retire after SS17 due to power steering issue. Finally, it must be mentioned that the Estonian driver dropped one minute in Stage 14 as the dust was hanging and came to a complete stop as he waited for the clouds to clear.


Finally, Greensmith and Fourmaux scored two and one extra points in Powerstage respectively.


Stage 14 was red flagged due to Solberg's incident, therefore the following drivers have been taken notional times. The second pass of SS14, SS17, was shortened.


Watch below the stage times:










Watch below the overall classification after the end of Safari Rally:




Photo Credits: Toyota

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post