Kalle Rovanpera avoided drama that befell his World Rally Championship rivals to extend his Safari Rally Kenya lead from Thierry Neuville after Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta suffered punctures.
Toyota’s Rovanpera was among the fortunate to enjoy a clean run through a gruelling and incident-filled Saturday morning loop of stages, to open up a 1m27.9s lead over Hyundai’s Neuville, who leapt from fourth to second. Neuville took advantage of a chaotic loop for Evans and Katsuta, who were delayed by double punctures. Katsuta ended the morning in third, where he started the day, albeit 2m22.9s adrift of the lead. Evans plummeted from second to fifth after his tyre dramas.
Read Also: WRCGearbox explosion caused Lappi's Safari Rally exit Lappi’s run through the test was however compromised by a front-left tyre coming off the rim towards the end of the pass. After inheriting third following Evans’ puncture, Neuville set his sights on reeling in second-placed Katsuta in stage nine . The Belgian picked up his second stage win of the event to close to within 4.8s of Katsuta. However, Neuville wasn’t happy to find the road had been changed in places since the recce.
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