At the end of Saturday morning, Oliver Solberg still leads Safari Rally Kenya with Sebastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta following him.
Oliver Solberg managed to retain his lead on Saturday morning and was the fastest driver on the opening stage of the day. However, he had to manage his tyres in Stage 13 as he suffered from a double puncture on the right side in Stage 12.
Sebastien Ogier keeps his second position after the first loop of Saturday. In fact, he dropped from second to fifth overall in Stage 11 as he had to stop to change a rear left puncture resulting in losing more than two minutes there. However, he took back his positions as he was the fastest driver in Stage 12 and 13.
Takamoto Katsuta does the 1-2-3 for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT and was sixth behind Ogier for 2,6 seconds at the end of Stage 12 as he got a double puncture.
Thierry Neuville gained two positions in Stage 13 and is to top Hyundai driver as he sits in fourth place. In fact, he dropped from fifth to seventh at the end of Stage 11 while he was behind the fifth Katsuta for 0,3 seconds at the end of Stage 12. The problems continued in Stage 13 as he had a water temperature alert.
Adrien Fourmaux comes right behind his teammate for 0,7 seconds and was the leading Hyundai driver from Stage 11 to 12. However, he lost many minutes in Stage 13 as he stopped 300 meters into SS13 as his i20N got a water temperature alert. In fact, he completes Stage 13 with a smoke coming from his i20N's bonnet as the engine was overheating.
Esapekka Lappi moved up from eighth to sixth overall at the end of Saturday morning and erned one position per stage in this loop. He got a front left puncture in Stage 12 while the windscreen was full of mud in Stage 13 resulting in having no visibility.
Sami Pajari lost three places on Saturday morning and is now seventh overall as he had to stop 16,5Km into SS13 in order to change two right punctures.
Jon Armstrong is probably outside the top ten after Stage 13, which was cancelled after Solberg's pass, and was the second-fastest driver in Stage 13. However, he had two front right punctures on the last two stages of Saturday morning.
Josh McErlean restarted today under the SuperRally regulations following a gearbox issue on Friday, but his Puma took in a lot of water which had a negative impact to the engine as it could not restart at the stop control.
Elfyn Evans retired from the third place in Stage 13 as the rear right suspension was broken. In fact, he was driving with a damaged suspension for three kilometers in SS13 while he had two punctures on the right side in Stage 12.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after Stage 13:
Photo Credits: Toyota
Post a Comment