The Finn Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) was still firmly in the lead of the Kenya Rally, the third round of the WRC world championship, at the end of the penultimate day on Saturday, making no mistakes on tracks that were sometimes muddy or dusty. The reigning double world champion, who is only 23 years old, has opted for a partial program this year, with only a few events on his roster. After skipping the Monte Carlo, he was forced to retire in Sweden.
His Toyota teammate, Briton Elfyn Evans, second on Friday evening, suffered three punctures on Saturday in the 8th, 10th and 13th special stages and lost a lot of time. He was only 4th on Saturday. The Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), leader of the world championship after two rounds, took the opportunity to temporarily take 2nd place. But the Hyundai driver quickly became disillusioned when he found himself idling in the 11th special before having to engage his car’s electric propulsion system to reach the finish. He consequently fell to 5th place more than 11 minutes behind Rovanperä while the Japanese Takamoto Tatsuta (Toyota) recovered 2nd place and the Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport/Ford) 3rd.
Rovanperä didn’t care what was happening behind him and increased his lead to more than 2’20” at the end of the 11th special before slowing down a little. At the end of the day he still had 2’17” on Tatsuta and 2’52” on Fourmaux. “I try to be as careful as possible. Even if you don’t drive fast there are still surprises,” he warned. Competitors still have six stages to complete on Sunday, the last of which, the Power Stage, will bring additional championship points to the five fastest.
1. Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (FIN/Toyota) 2h28:22.42. Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (JPN-IRL/ Toyota) à 2:17.73. Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (FRA/M-Sport Ford) à 2:52.44. Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (GBR/Toyota) à 3:35.15. Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL/Hyundai) à 11:07.5
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