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WRC Safari Rally Kenya treated fans to some exhilarating displays of ‘fesh fesh’ racing on Friday morning but the dreaded Kedong tested the crews to the limit amid a number of puncture incidents.
Toyota Gazoo Racing —who claimed a 1-2-3-4 finish in 2022—showed it had lost none of its ‘fesh fesh’ abilities over Kenya’s rugged speed tests.
Frenchman Sébastien Ogier, who competes on a part-time basis, savoured a slender 2.5sec lead over team-mate Kalle Rovanperä as crews returned to Service B at the Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI) in Naivasha.
The Frenchman racked up the tight and twisty Loldia opener and extended his advantage into double figures with a top-two time at Geothermal.
His efforts were undone in the super-fast Kedong stage. However, a hybrid unit fault cost him almost 10 seconds and allowed Rovanperä back into the fight.
“I had no hybrid for the whole stage,” Ogier revealed, adding: “We are in the lead and it’s still a very long weekend ahead. Of course, it’s very disappointing when you lose time and you cannot do anything. I think we can be happy with our loop for sure and we hope our car will be 100 percent again for the afternoon.”
LOOP 1 RESULTS AFTER LOLDIA 1, GEOTHERMAL 1 & KEDONG 1
1. (FRA) S. OGIER ( TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT) 38:57.4
2. (FIN) K. ROVANPERÄ (TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT) +2.5
3. (GBR) E. EVANS ( TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT )+19.5
4. (BEL) T. NEUVILLE (HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM)+21.2
5. (JPN) T. KATSUTA (TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT) +29.1
BY THE STAR