At the end of the Friday morning, Sebastien Ogier is the new leader of Safari Rally Kenya with Kalle Rovanpera and Elfyn Evans following him.
Sebastien Ogier stole Tanak's lead at the end of Stage 2 and is first overall since that stage after his setting the fastest time in SS2. The eight-time World Rally Champion lost 9,4 seconds in SS4 as he had no hybrid power, therefore Kalle Rovanpera came closer to his teammate as their gap is at 2,5 from 11,9 seconds after the end of Friday morning.
Rovanpera cut Ogier's lead to 2.5 seconds, as the first one was the fastest driver in SS4, and generally his stage times were at the top four despite the fact that he was starting first on the road.
Elfyn Evans completes the 1-2-3 for Toyota and stayed out of trouble in this loop.
Thierry Neuville was third overall after SS2, but he dropped to sixth place at the end of Stage 3 as he had a front-right tyre damage which cost him 9,2 seconds. On the final stage of the morning, he was the second fastest driver and managed to gain two places back, so he is now behind Evans for 1,7 seconds. Finally, he had to be careful for the next one stage after SS3 as he carried only one spare wheel in the morning.
Takamoto Katsuta dropped from fourth to fifth after SS4 due to the fact that he had a big damage on the front of his Yaris and tried to fix it on the road section between SS3 and SS4.
Esapekka Lappi dropped 30 seconds in SS4 after the delamination of the rear-right tyre resulting in losing one place and being sixth overall before the start of Friday afternoon. However, it must be mentioned that he was the fastest driver in SS3 and managed to climb to fifth from seventh place after his stage win.
Dani Sordo follows his teammate for 4,8 seconds and was struggling with the behavior of his i20N.
Pierre-Louis Loubet, Ott Tanak and Oliver Solberg complete the top ten.
Loubet's debut in Kenya did not start well as a setting issue costed him 30 seconds on the opening stage of Friday. In addition to this issue, he had no engine power throughout that stage, but he fixed his Puma for SS3.
The drama for M-Sport Ford hit Tanak as well who is in ninth position overall. In Stage 2, he had to back off his pace due to the zebras that were in the stage while he stopped 9.6 Km into SS4 to change a wheel. In addition to the change wheel which was completed under two minutes, he faced an engine power in Kedong and could not get the power resulting in dropping more than two minutes.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after SS4:
Photo Credits: Toyota
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