Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen finally won Rally Finland, laying to rest the ghost of last year when they crashed out on the penultimate stage.

It was a scintillating final Wolf Power Stage which Rovanperä won by two seconds from Takamoto Katsuta and Sebastien Ogier.

The Finnish wunderkind took the Super Sunday bonus points and moves into second place in the championship standings, just three points off Elfyn Evans who reclaimed the title lead after a disastrous weekend for Ott Tanak.

Tanak suffered a delaminated tyre which caused a high-speed spin on the final stage while Adrien Fourmaux suffered yet another puncture and retired four km from the end of the stage to avoid further damage to his car.

Elfyn Evans brought his GR Yaris home in fourth overall having won the morning’s first stage by 0.4 seconds from Ogier.

Sami Pajari came home in fifth overall, giving Toyota a top five lockout, only the second time in history, a feat last achieved by Lancia 35 years ago on Rally Portugal in 1990.

Thierry Neuville brought his Hyundai home in sixth overall, having run in second place until his fateful puncture on stage 16 on Saturday afternoon.

Josh McErlean was the top M-Sport Ford crew in seventh, followed by Martins Sesks and Gregoire Munster. Ott Tanak salvaged a single point for tenth.

Roope Korhonen fended off TGR Team boss Jari-Matti Latvala to claim his maiden WRC2 victory with Robert Virves rounding out the podium.

Read Motorsport Monday for the full story on the fastest rally in history where Rovanperä averaged 129.9km/h!

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Wet weather greeted the competitors on Saturday morning as the longest day of Rally Finland got underway.

Overnight, Ott Tanak was given a five-minute penalty for a scrutineering incident in a tyre checking zone after stage seven, where he had just crashed into a tree. The penalty dropped the Estonian down to 24^th position in the overall standings.

Rovanperä, chasing his first home win, set off to increase his lead which he almost doubled from 4.9 to 8.3 seconds after Saturday’s opening stage. On stage 12, the Finn’s lead was 12.0 seconds but on (unlucky) stage 13, he picked up a slow puncture and lost 2.7 seconds to Thierry Neuville, who still held second overall.

Rovanperä powered his GR Yaris to another stage win to extend his lead to 14.7 seconds at the end of the morning loop after Neuville lost the rear brakes on his Hyundai. The podium fight between the Belgian and Adrien Fourmaux in third was down to 0.3 seconds.

After the midday service, it was raining again and the crews faced tough conditions. Martins Sesks crawled through the first part of stage 15 with zero visibility and finally found a safe place to pull over and clear the misted-up windscreen. He lost over two minutes and dropped from being the leading M-Sport crew to tenth overall.

At the sharp end of the field, Sebastien Ogier took his first stage win with the top five drivers covered by a mere 1.2 seconds. Sami Pajari turned up the wick to take the fastest time in stage 16 having lost his sixth place overall to Elfyn Evans on the previous stage.

Stage 16 tuned the rally on its head. Lightning struck Hyundai twice; firstly, Fourmaux picked up a right-front puncture which did quite a bit of cosmetic damage to his i20 N as he continued, albeit at a reduced pace and moments later, Neuville also picked up a right-front puncture.

Fourmaux dropped a minute 48.8 seconds and plummeted to seventh, while Neuville lost one minute 38.2 seconds and dropped to sixth overall. Both drivers said they had no idea how their punctures had happened…

Suddenly, Toyota held a one-two-three-four-five with Rovanperä streaking away with a twenty-nine second lead over Takamoto Katsuta, Ogier, Evans and Pajari.

The final two stages went off without any incidents, with Rovanperä taking the scratch time in both stages to end the day with a 36.8 second lead while Evans was closing on Ogier with 1.5 seconds separating the pair.

In WRC2, Roope Korhonen continues to lead with Jar-Matti Latvala holding second from Robert Virves.

The final day features just two stages; the iconic Ouninpohja stage, at 23.98km in length will be run twice.

It is far from over…

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Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson stunned the WRC elite with a commanding display across the high-speed gravel roads of Estonia, sealing his breakthrough win on debut in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 – nearly 20 years after father Petter’s final WRC success in 2005.

With an overnight lead of 21.1 seconds heading into Sunday’s final three stages and 60km of racing, it was a nervous Solberg who faced a wet-dry stage. He made no mistakes and set the fastest time, as he did on the 24km long penultimate test, taking his tally to nine stage wins.

Solberg also took the maximum Super Sunday bonus points. “After everything, so many years trying and trying and trying and dreaming, and me and Elliott finally made it,” said Solberg. “I just want to say thank you to Toyota, to the test team who helped me get so comfortable, for all the help this weekend from this beautiful, beautiful team. I’ve never had such a good time in my life.”

Home hero Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja brought their Hyundai i20 home in second place and took the championship lead by one point from Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe completed the podium after Hyundai called time-out on their ferocious fight on Saturday. The current world champion was slapped with a 10-second penalty for a jumped start on the first stage of the day.

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen finished a humbling and lonely fourth overall, with the three-time Rally Estonia winner taking the Wolf Power Stage win.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria ended fifth overall having left bits of their Hyundai in the Estonian countryside after a nose-first landing in the day’s opening stage.

Evans and Scott Martin passed Takamoto Katsuta for sixth in the penultimate stage, but the Japanese driver was forced to retire before the final test.

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen ended seventh ahead of M-Sport Ford’s leading crew, Martins Sesks and Renars Francis, with Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy and Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka rounding out the top ten in their Puma Rally1 machines.

Robert Virves and Jakko Viilo claimed their maiden WRC win on home soil ahead of fellow Estonians Georg Linnamäe and James Morgan.

Read the full report in Motorsport Monday tomorrow.

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Oliver Solberg continued his domination of WRC Delfi Rally Estonia on Saturday, increasing his overnight lead to 21.1 seconds after winning three stages on the fly on Saturday morning.

His Friday performance was helped by a favourable road position, but it was a level playing field on Saturday with three drivers boasting four championships between them, trying to hunt him down to no avail.

Another fastest time on stage 15 kept his confidence high while conceding a few tenths here and there after he claimed he would wind his speed down a bit.

“It’s been an absolutely amazing day,” said Solberg, whose father Petter was the 2003 world champion. “Really consistent speed, no mistakes, just trying to keep it clean. It wasn’t the plan to extend the gap, but hey, it’s fantastic.

“I’m just doing my thing and trying to do every stage as good as I can and as clean as I can with no mistakes, and today there have been no mistakes. They are pushing so hard behind, and I can feel it – it’s tense.”

Behind the flying Toyota, it was all out war between Hyundai’s Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville as they fought over second position overall. They traded places six times during the day, with the margin between them as close as 0.1 seconds after stage 13.

A ‘suggestion’ from Hyundai’s bosses that it was critically important to bring both cars home in second and third to maximize their Manufacturers’ points saw Neuville lose a little confidence, leaving Tanak four seconds ahead of his teammate at the end of play.

Kalle Rovanperä holds fourth in no-man’s land, too far behind the Hyundais and sufficiently ahead of fifth placed Adrien Fourmaux to gain or lose any positions in the standings. Rovanperä wrung his Toyota’s neck, and tried numerous changes during the day to improve matters but admitted he and Toyota Gazoo Racing were out of options to find more speed.

Fourmaux had a steady run in the third i20 N, successfully absorbing Takamoto Katsuta’s pressure to leave the Japanese Toyota driver trailing by 8.6 seconds in fifth and sixth respectively.

Elfyn Evans was expected to challenge Katsuta and Fourmaux, given his more favourable position of fifth on the road, but he languished in seventh place and like his teammate, simply lacked pace across the longest day of the rally. Not only did he fail to make any progress climbing up the leader board, but he also dropped a couple of seconds further back.

Sami Pajari ended eighth overall, 34 seconds ahead of M-Sport Ford’s leading Puma in the hands of Martins Sesks. Josh McErlean rounded out the top ten with Grégoire Munster languishing in last in the Rally1 class after spending Saturday running first on the road.

Robert Virves continues to lead in WRC2 with a comfortable margin of 26.5 seconds over his fellow Estonian Georg Linnamäe.

Three stages and 60km remain for Sunday, with the possibility of rain at roughly the time the Wolf Power Stage is scheduled to start…

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It may be just a one-off outing in Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR Yaris Rally1 for Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson, but the 23-year-old grabbed the opportunity with both hands by winning three of Rally Estonia’s six Friday stages.

Solberg was blisteringly quick through Friday morning’s opening 24.35km stage, the longest of the rally, beating his double world champion teammate Kalle Rovanperä by 5.3 seconds, and grabbing the lead of the rally which he held throughout the day.

Solberg went on to win stage four, the repeat of stage two, again beating his illustrious teammate by 2.8 seconds. The young Swede’s third career stage win came on SS7. Stages three, five and six saw Solberg set the second fastest time to close out his return to the top class with a 12.4 second cushion.

“To be leading the rally and to have won a few stages, and to have this amazing feeling in the car, you know – this day has been all about fun,” Solberg grinned. “I don’t know what to say – It’s just been the best day of my life.”

Home hero Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja won stage three, taking second overall off Rovanperä, and went on to set the fastest time on stage five, cementing his overall position in the standings. “It’s just so loose and [there’s] no grip whatsoever,” he said. “I did everything I could, it is as it is at the moment.”

Hyundai’s defending champion Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe ended the day in third position. The Belgian duo won the opening super special stage on Thursday but lost time in Friday’s morning loop. Neuville did not have confidence in his car to challenge but after the midday service, he began to reel Tanak in. 1.8 seconds separates the two i20 N drivers after Neuville took the scratch time on the day’s final super special stage.

Rovanperä ended the day in fourth overall, 5.9 seconds behind Neuville. “It’s pretty much the maximum we can do with this car and the current feeling,” the Finn reflected.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria ended the day in fifth overall after a frustrating morning as he battled for grip. Set-up changes in service transformed his Hyundai and he immediately went on to win SS 6 and only lost the top spot in stage seven by 0.3 second to Solberg.

Takamoto Katsuta succumbed to Fourmaux’s newfound speed which was compounded by a spin and intercom issues to end sixth overall in the third TGR Yaris.

Elfyn Evans, first on the road as championship leader, struggled for traction and languished in eighth – ahead of fellow Toyota driver Sami Pajari, whose morning was hampered by an intermittent power loss.

Mārtiņš Sesks and Josh McErlean rounded out the top 10 in M-Sport Ford Pumas, split by 18.6sec. Grégoire Munster was 11th after a difficult day that included brake issues, a tyre deflation and an overshoot.

In WRC2, Robert Virves is dominating the category with a 34.4 second lead over his Estonian countryman Georg Linnamäe. Roope Korhonen, Mikko Heikkila and Lauri Joona round out the top five.

Pre-event favourite Nikolay Gryazin crashed out early in stage two.

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With just the super special stage remaining on Saturday, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen won every stage of the day, giving the rally leader not only a full house of 12 stage wins out of 12, his lead extended to an impressive 45.7 seconds ahead of Sebastian Ogier, who eased away from Elfyn Evans who was 23 seconds adrift in third.

The morning loop of the longest day of the rally saw ‘business as usual’ at the head of the leaderboard. Rovanperä won all three of the morning stages to extend his lead over Sebastian Ogier to 36.9 seconds.

Ogier ran Rovanperä close in the two opening tests, finishing one second adrift in SS7 and 0.7 seconds in the following stage. Rovanperä re-asserted his mastery in the final stage before service, hustling his GR Yaris through the 23.3km test 8.4 seconds quicker than anyone else.

Elfyn Evans maintained his third position in something of a no-mans-land; too far behind Ogier to challenge for second and well ahead of Toyota’s rising star, Sami Pajari. Stage eight saw the top four Toyotas covered by 1.2 seconds, with Pajari snapping at Evans’ heels on occasion, finishing stage eight and nine 0.4 seconds behind the championship leader on both occasions.

Takamoto Katsuta got in on the action as well, setting the third best time in SS9 but remained behind Pajari in the overall standings.

Adrien Fourmaux was once again the quickest Hyundai and pushed his teammates down the order as he re-claimed sixth overall. Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak were still experiencing handling issues and languished in seventh and eighth. They set near-identical times in stage eight but were still only seventh and eighth quickest.

M-Sport Ford’s duo of Grégoire Munster and Joshua McErlean were mired at the foot of the Rally1 standings, battling their ill-handling Pumas.

After the service break the order remained unchanged with one difference. Evans only set the sixth fastest time, beaten by Pajari, Katsuta and Fourmaux in stage 10.

Munster was a little optimistic in stage 11, hustling his recalcitrant Puma too fast into a corner 3.5km into the stage. He missed a tree by millimeters but beached himself in a clump of thick bamboo and lost three minutes as spectators battled to manhandle the car back onto the road.

Stage 12 brought disaster for Sami Pajari; with a split time well up on Katsuta, he understeered into a barrier around 20km into the stage and damaged the right front corner of his Yaris. Game over.

The fight in WRC2 was intense: Yohan Rossel still led but he was under attack from Alejandro Cachón and Nikolay Gryazin. Rossel’s lead was down to 14.8 seconds after the morning loop but by close of business ahead of the super special stage, the French ace’s lead was back to 20.5 seconds.

The final 1.8km stage brought an end to Rovanperä’s rout. Evans took the stage win from Ogier with Neuville tied on time with Rovanperä.

Five stages and 58km remain with ten bonus points up for grabs.

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Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen dominated the opening day of Rally Islas Canarias, winning all six stages to enjoy a commanding 26.8 second lead over Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais, heading a stunning Toyota Gazoo Racing 1-2-3-4-5.

Rovanperä laid down his marker as early as the shakedown stage on Thursday, setting the quickest time by just over four seconds. The double world champion made his GR Yaris Rally1 obey his every command around the twisty, sometimes narrow 118.8km of tarmac stages.

Ogier had the measure of Evans – who opened the road – but the gap between the two Yaris drivers was just 9.6 seconds.

The championship leaders Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were doing what they needed to do, setting a risk-free pace knowing their title rivals Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe were enduring a miserable day along with the entire Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team squad.

Adrien Fourmaux was the leading Hyundai across the morning loop of stages while Ott Tanak/Martin Järveoja and Neuville languished in seventh and eighth respectively, mystified by their i20 N’s poor handling. To put that in perspective, Neuville lost 13 seconds in the opening stage alone…“Honestly, it’s not very enjoyable and it’s just not working,” Neuville said. “I can’t take any line. Nothing is working.”

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen ended the opening three-stage loop 0.2 seconds behind Fourmaux; after the first stage after the midday service, Pajari had moved ahead of the Frenchman with the fifth Toyota of Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston lining up the Hyundai who duly took fifth in stage five.

From being the fastest Hyundai before lunch, Fourmaux became the slowest and lost positions to Neuville and Tanak although the advantage between the two champions was a whisker at 0.8 seconds with Fourmaux another 0.7 seconds further back. There were no happy faces in the Korean camp…

The M-Sport Ford Pumas were – there’s no other description – pedestrian, propping up the bottom of the Rally1 timing sheets. In the opening stage, Munster was more than one second per kilometer off the pace and ended the day a whopping 2’11” off the lead. Both he and Josh McErlean reported handling issues.

In WRC2, Yohan Rossel and Arnaud Dunand were doing a “Rovanperä”, winning all six stages in their Citroen C3, if not at a canter, sufficiently quick to hold off the Spanish Rally Champion Alejandro Cachón/Borja Rozada in their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. Leo Rossel Guillaume Mercoiret in the second PH Sport Citroen rounded out the class podium.

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Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin claimed their maiden Safari Rally Kenya victory giving Toyota Gazoo Racing  their fifth straight win in the modern Safari era. Hyundai secured their best Kenyan result with a two-three podium for Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja and Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe.

Evans, with his second consecutive victory has extended his lead in the Driver’s Championship to 36 points while Toyota Gazoo Racing still leads the Manufacturers standings.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria won the Wolf Power stage and topped the Super Sunday standings, taking the maximum 10 point bonus.

Sami Pajari completed his maiden Safari adventure in fourth overall with Takamoto Katsuta provisionally in fifth assuming he makes it to the final control in what was a very sick sounding car after rolling his GR Yaris one kilometer into the final stage, losing fourth place overall while chasing the Super Sunday win, where he was a mere 0.3 seconds behind Fourmaux going into the Wolf Power Stage.

Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka brought their Puma home in sixth while the final Rally 1 runner, Greek gentleman driver Jourdan Serderidis and Frederic Miclotte took home a couple of points for ninth overall.

Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen retired after Sunday’s first stage with electrical problems

Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson made it back-to-back WRC2 African victories in their Skoda Fabia RS, their task made easier after  their major challenger Jan Solans and Rodrigo Sanjuan rolled their Toyota GR Yaris on Sunday’s opening stage.

Read Motorsport Monday for a full rally report on Monday (obviously!)

The post Elfyn Evans bags the big game on Safari appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin survived the six-stage mud bath that was Safari Rally Kenya on Saturday. Overnight rain turned the stages into a quagmire while ongoing rain – torrential at times – shuffled the leaderboard almost by the stage.

Heading out on Saturday morning, Evans had a slender 7.7 second lead over his double world champion teammates Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen but after the day was done, Evans had 1’57.4” in hand over Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja and 4’33.4” over third placed Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, provisionally giving Hyundai their best Safari result since it returned to the WRC calendar in 2021.

The first casualty of the day was Adrien Fourmaux who did not start Saturday, the team elected to save the car for Super Sunday.

Evans took his first stage win of the rally and driving with a fine balance of speed and caution more than doubled his lead on stage 12 after Rovanpera had a left-front puncture.

In stage 11, Neuville lost 1’25” changing a flat tyre and Josh McErlean hit a rock which caused a puncture which they stopped to change. A few km further down the road, the Puma pulled up with a broken steering rack, which cost the Irish duo 20 minutes to repair.

Takamoto Katsuta, still feeling weak and co-driver Aaron Johnston ended the stage with a tyre hanging off the rim, deflating their podium aspirations.

As stage 12 got underway, Munster stopped again for yet another puncture, leaving the M-Sport crew with no more spares. Neuville dropped 42.8 seconds but refused to speak at the end of the stage. He too was ill with a tummy bug so did well in the circumstances. Evans took his second consecutive stage win, extending his lead to 37 seconds.

Stage 13 was largely dry but extremely muddy towards the end; Rovanpera had a puncture and dropped 1’20” to Katsuta who lit up the timing screens, 14.5 seconds quicker through the 28.9km stage – the longest of the day – than Tanak.

It got worse for Rovanpera in stage 13 when he suffered another left-front puncture after going off the road to avoid a large herd of zebra in the road – only in Africa! Evans’ lead mushroomed to 1’32.5” while Tanak closed to within 17 seconds to the #69 Yaris.

Torrential rain began to fall as the stage got underway, with Munster, running second on the road, going completely sideways to his direction of travel but he saved his Puma and continued.

Both Hyundais had issues with the windscreen misting up with Wydaeghe using a selfie-stick and a cloth to wipe the windscreen for Neuville!

Evans had a spin in a straight line as the conditions worsened but Rovanperä’s rally went south in stage 14 when a wishbone broke and although he came home with the second fastest stage time, there was still a long way to go. After the stage finish, he strapped the broken piece with ratchet straps. Would it hold for another 46.6km of stages to run?

Stage 15: it started to rain at the start of the stage but the early runners, Jourdan Serderidis, Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean had the best of the conditions. The later runners all faced significant rain and slippery roads, while Katsuta and Neuville each had a right-front puncture.

It started raining heavily towards the end of the stage, which Munster won followed by McErlean, giving M-Sport Ford a one-two stage result.

Rovanpera limped through the stage, his wheel moving about and unable to put any forces through the left-rear and lost 2’56”, handing Tanak second position.

Evans was in the pound seats with a 2’50” lead with one stage remaining.  The stage start and end were awash and there was no grip, with everyone running wide at some point, especially over the final four km of the stage. Katsuta had another puncture, McErlean was missing his front bumper and Neuville had a misfire, but it was Tänak who took the fastest time, followed by Neuville.

Evans tip-toed through the stage – the rally was his to lose and ended the day with 1’57.4” in hand over Tanak, who had a cushion of 2’36″ over Neuville. Katsuta, Rovanpera – who lost another 3’18.5” in the final stage, and Pajari, who had a steady drive on his maiden visit to Kenya completed the top six

The rally leader played down his chances, saying: “It’s been remarkably difficult out there today. This has definitely been a proper Safari. Even this morning the conditions were really quite tricky after a lot of rain overnight. Then the rain came again immediately as we started the afternoon loop. The conditions were horribly inconsistent, and I was trying to treat everything with care but it’s easy to drop a lot of time. I couldn’t see much at all at the end with so much mud, but I’m happy we managed to get through it. Even with this gap, nothing is guaranteed on this rally. Tomorrow will be demanding and rough and anything can still happen, so we need to stay focused.”

Second placed Tanak said: “There has been a lot of action today, especially this afternoon – it was proper wet and tricky conditions. Unfortunately, we had some trouble with the windscreen again and water in the car, which made it a very demanding loop. The conditions change from stage to stage so you never really know what you are going to find. There is always a new challenge you need to fight and overcome. Tomorrow should be smoother but the roads are still very rough in places.”

Gus Greensmith emerged from the carnage to lead the WRC2 category after fending off Jan Solans, who took the lead on Saturday’s third stage, opening a gap of 19 seconds over his Skoda rival before the brit struck back in the tricky final stage.

Oliver Solberg won three of the day’s six stages but remains over half an hour off the lead.

Sunday’s final day features five stages in total, beginning with a return to Thursday evening’s Mzabibu stage. Oserengoni and Hell’s Gate will then be run twice either side of final service, with the second pass of Hell’s Gate once more serving as the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage.

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Friday, the longest day of the WRC Safari Rally Kenya, was brutal in every sense. Cars arrived back at the final service missing chunks of bodywork, bumpers were torn, slitters were missing but through it all, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin landed up with a 7.7 second lead over Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen, in a now familiar Safari Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two.

The day started with the longest stage of the rally, a nasty sinewy, tight, undulating, damp piece of Kenya but it didn’t stop Ott Tanak and Martin Järveoja from taking an immediate lead after blitzing the 31.4km stage by 2.1 seconds ahead of the reigning world champion Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, giving Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team cause for hope to end their African drought.

Tanak went on to win three of the morning’s stages, heading into service with a handy, if not comfortable 24.4 second lead over Evans.

After the second stage of the afternoon loop, Tanak’s lead had almost doubled to 46.1 seconds before a driveshaft issue lost the i20 N pair 68 seconds over the 13km SS10, and the rally lead.

“It’s been a difficult day, and we’ve erred on the side of caution,” said Evans. “Obviously some guys have had trouble, which is unfortunate, but it’s part of the Safari. It’s a bit frustrating sometimes because you feel like you can take a bit more risk and go a bit faster, but I keep reminding myself where we are.

“It’s a shame for Ott, obviously, to have a mechanical [failure] like that. You never know in this game if it’s because the car has had an impact or if it’s just a standard failure, but it’s a shame for him because he was going well.”

Tänak said: “At the end of the second stage of the afternoon, I noticed we had a driveline issue, but we managed to finish the stage. We then realized it was an issue with the driveshaft but we were unable to remove it before the penultimate stage, so we had to drive through it carefully to stop it from damaging the engine. Luckily, we managed to remove it for the final stage, so we didn’t have to nurse it. We will try to come back tomorrow but we know it’s rough, its demanding and its hard on the car.”

Rovanperä , whose only bother was a spin in stage four, turned up the wick to win the day’s final two stages and close on his teammate with Tanak relegated to third overall some 55.4 seconds off the lead.

Neuville, who started the day in eighth place, incurred a one-minute penalty for leaving the morning service six minutes late, and went on to pick up a jump start penalty and another minute for leaving the midday service six minutes late and suffered two punctures along his climb back up the leaderboard to end the day in fourth.

Takamoto Katsuta ended Friday in fifth after not sleeping the previous night due to a tummy bug. He had two punctures in the day’s opening stage, relegating him to survival mode as he was out of spare rubber.

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen ended their debut Safari in sixth position despite stopping to change a tyre in in morning’s first stage. Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka caught up to the young Finn and were blinded by the Toyota’s dust and hit a rock.

The M-Sport Ford driver had to deal with his Puma going into limp mode and later emerged from stage eight with a missing right-front fender. There were further troubles for the Puma driver who broke a bumper which folded over the air intake, leaving the Luxembourger to manage high engine temperatures, relegating him to 11^th overall.

His young teammate Josh McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treacy had a solid drive to seventh. In stage seven, the Irishman stopped to investigate heat in the cabin, but there was no sign of a fire, which they thought may have been the issue. It turned out to be the spare wheel which came loose and punched a hole in the Puma’s boot, allowing the heat from the squashed exhaust into the cabin – along with loads of dust, leaving the pair to complete the day wearing goggles.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria retired (again) in stage seven with broken right-front suspension after not stopping to change a flat tyre.

Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson lead WRC2 from the start to midway through stage seven when his Printsport-run Toyota GR Yaris bogged down in thick sand.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz ended the day in the WRC2 lead after a fierce battle with Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson, the gap between the warring Toyota and Skoda pair 10.2 seconds. Spaniard Jan Solans manhandled his GR Yaris Rally2 to third despite running the final trio of stages without power steering.

Saturday takes crews north to Lake Elmenteita for a trio of tests that are all familiar from previous years: Sleeping Warrior, Elmenteita and Soysambu. All three will be repeated after midday service in Naivasha.

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